.
Neil Young released Harvest in 1972 and Joni Mitchell released Blue in 1971 and people still pay to listen to those songs. No one is going to be replaying Joe Rogan podcasts 50 years from now. He has to keep feeding words into the big bullshit machine or his audience goes away, because cheap junk doesn’t last. – Kay
Joe Rogan is TFG in a hoodie and jeans — a television-made ‘celebrity’ tickling an audience of resentful racists by ‘just saying’ all their favorite slurs & fantasies out loud. Vanity Fair:
… Rogan—who recently hosted Robert Malone, a controversial medical doctor and infectious-disease researcher who promoted a “mass formation psychosis” conspiracy theory, on his podcast—apologized to Spotify and thanked the company for supporting him. “I’m very sorry that this is happening to them and that they’re taking so much heat from it,” Rogan said on Sunday in a 10-minute video statement posted on Instagram. Spotify obtained exclusive rights to The Joe Rogan Experience in 2020, when it struck a reported $100 million deal with Rogan. Financially, that contract has paid off for Spotify, as Rogan’s show and his millions of listeners have played a key role in helping the tech company’s plan to grow its user base through podcasting. But Spotify’s association with Rogan has also caused the company headaches, particularly due to his pandemic-related content, such as when Rogan endorsed the use of ivermectin as a treatment for COVID-19 and advised “healthy” young people not to get vaccinated. (Rogan did clarify that he’s “not an anti-vax person” after the White House shot down the latter claim.)
Rogan has largely remained unshaken throughout his past controversies. In August, Ek made a public stand in support of the podcaster’s creative independence, stating that Spotify will not censor the content of Rogan’s show. But that tune seemingly changed in light of Young and Mitchell’s boycott of Spotify—protests that came after Rogan’s recent episode with Malone, in which the guest made “several falsehoods about COVID-19 vaccines,” according to the open letter from medical experts. (Malone had already been permanently suspended from Twitter and saw an unofficial upload of his podcast episode with Rogan swiftly removed by YouTube.)
“If there’s anything that I’ve done that I can do better is have more experts with differing opinions, right after I have the controversial ones,” Rogan said on Sunday. “I would most certainly be open to doing that. I would like to talk to some people that have differing opinions on those podcasts in the future. We’ll see.” He went on to say that while he schedules his own guests, he does not “always get it right.” Rogan also noted that his intention with the show has always been “to create interesting conversations and ones that I hope people enjoy,” adding, “I’m not trying to promote misinformation, I’m not trying to be controversial. I’ve never tried to do anything with this podcast other than to just talk to people.” …
Rogan’s not an ideologue, he’s just another media whore. He gives his audience what it wants — watching people eat bugs or get kicked in the head, spouting racist rhetoric, medical misinformation — as long as he’s paid up front.
This here's a company that is panicking.https://t.co/OKrMXl09UI
— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) January 30, 2022
ie following the Twitter playbook for yrs when it allowed Trump to violate terms of service everyday before deplatforming him
— Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) January 31, 2022
Here is Spotify CEO Daniel Ek's statement, in full: https://t.co/pTrkqdg51k
— David Gura (@davidgura) January 30, 2022
IMO, depending on whether other high-profile artists join Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, this is still a quite possible outcome…
My guess? They work out a deal where he gets to say he was Fired For Truth™, he gets a big cut of that money, signs another, non-exclusive deal with a small, right-wing streamer like Rumble, then largely goes back to being every teenager's third click in the YouTube algorithm.
— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) January 30, 2022
… which is a pity, because it’s not just Rogan who’s the problem here.
our stupid band gets close to a million monthly streams on spotify. spotify pays out .003 cents per stream. 100% of that goes to our former label sony who is a part owner of spotify. this is why i’m mad
— nigh eve6 (@Eve6) January 31, 2022
this is not a culture war issue for most artists it’s a material one. i cannot feed my kids with “spotify exposure”
— nigh eve6 (@Eve6) January 31, 2022
thank you guys for your solidarity and your support. it’s been frustrating seeing this story get painted as a culture war thing. we are trying to shift the narrative. joe rogan is only important in that he highlights spotify’s absurdly exploitative business practices
— nigh eve6 (@Eve6) January 31, 2022
Asparagus Aspersions
I’m no technophobe, but I do sometimes miss the days where the only platform for Joe Rogan’s interviews would be a cable access show at 3:30 a.m.
NotMax
What’s the next step down from “weak sauce?”
Never heard of Rogan prior to this whole mess and would it were still so.
Redshift
NotMax
@Asparagus Aspersions
Ah, the heady days of the likes of Robin Bird and Ugly George.
//
Cacti
Since it’s February 1 now in most places, Happy Lunar New Year!
Year of the Water Tiger this year, I believe.
Redshift
Another astute comment I read earlier this evening is that Spotify is trying to cut-and-paste Facebook’s standard response “we can’t do content moderation, blah, blah,” and it’s even more blatant BS than it is with social media, because the issue isn’t millions of users posting content to monitor, it’s a guy who they’re paying for his content. They’re his publisher, they are absolutely responsible for the content he puts out.
NotMax
Third 524 error on refreshing page within 10 minutes.
Baud
I’m still taken aback that Rogan hasn’t signed up to be the spokesman for Rogaine. Seems like a perfect fit.
Juju
@Baud: I don’t think Rogaine is interested in using a spokesperson who looks like an elderly homely bald baby, though the last name would seem to work with their product.
BeautifulPlumage
Might be the oldest “surviving” photograph of a cat.
sab
@BeautifulPlumage: It looks so regal.
trollhattan
If shavy-head boring bro Rogan is worth a hundred mil, then Marc Marin is worth Jupiter or some equally serious shit, amirite? Bidnez model run amok. Can I give Spotify a hearty Logan Roy “Fuck off”?
prostratedragon
From a former world:
From our world:
Happy Birthday, Mr. Glass.
*Pruitt-Igoe was a low-income housing project in St. Louis, built in the heady days of the urban renewal movement, but emptied and razed only couple of decades later as shown in the movie clip, considered a failed experiment. Its architect was Minoru Yamasaki, who also designed the Twin Towers.
oldster
Spotify now joins a list of other corporations that I would love to send a “cancel my subscription” letter to, except I don’t subscribe to them to begin with. (see NYT, Atlantic, Facebook, any cable service, etc.)
Basically, the only joint I subscribe to is this one, and I think I do it for free anyhow? So if those Great Dane pictures ever piss me off, you’re going to get an irate letter from me canceling my subscription except oops I don’t pay anyhow.
All the same, tremble at my power of consumer preference!
And let’s hear it for Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, two of my favorite Canadians.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
The only reason I know his name is because he spent years claiming the moon landing was fake and pushing the existence of UFOs.
So every time I looked up a space documentary Youtube would also attach one his videos as “a similar video you may find interesting”.
And then Bernie went on his show and groveled for his endorsement (because as Joe Rogan goes so goes South Carolina), which received only after promising he’d get to the bottom of UFOs as president.
HA!
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
President Obama once advised pols not to touch the UFO stove (video)
BeautifulPlumage
@sab: reminds me of some cats in current photos.
And speaking of cat photos, the FFOTUS photos are wonderful!
JoyceH
@BeautifulPlumage: Oh, aren’t those photos completely glamorous?! Was that the White House photog? He should send a portfolio to Vogue.
sab
@BeautifulPlumage: Yes they are.
I utterly love German Shepherds. My best dog ever was a GSD.
But Willow is very special. She seems to be adapting well to a new environment
ETA: Willow is from Lawrence County Pa. I had family from Lawrence Pa. Sort of boondocks, but my great aunts were very good people.
JoyceH
New subject – so much news tonight about the plan to seize the voting machines, and nobody has mentioned that in addition to being illegal, unconstitutional and unamerican, the project would have been a logistical nightmare. Do you imagine that when these crackpots were sitting around the Oval Office dreaming up harebrained schemes, it crossed the mind of at least one of them to ask, “hey, how many voting machines are there, anyway? How many trucks or warehouses do we need?”
NotMax
@prostratedragon – @BeautifulPlumage
Mixing Glass with glass (negatives), The Photographer.
sab
If it’s anything like my menagerie, Willow and Commander will soon be devoted to each other, and Willow will be in charge.
sab
@JoyceH: In American democracy there is nothing as important as Secretaries of State, except maybe the local Boards of Election. SOS can hold the line, as they did this last presidential election.
NotMax
@sab
Master and Commander?
:)
sab
@NotMax: Link didn’t work. Just got me a bunch of random Youtubes.
NotMax
@sab
Hm. Works fine for me. Shall do a quick search for an alternative link, however. And here’s one now.
NotMax
@sab – @NotMax
Just in case, another one, which makes more sense in context as it depicts the Muybridge pastiche.
sab
@NotMax: Yes. Our Shadow would agree. She dominates Ponyo the pitbull. As does Dobby the formerly Demon Cat.
My husband found an elderly large stray dog today wandering along a busy residential thoroughfare.
He brought the big guy home. Very sweet sort of shepherd collie cross. Huge.
Looking at the collar, he belonged to a local muni judge. Dem, highly regarded in legal community.
Called her for about an hour. All to voicemail.
Meanwhile big guy was hanging around in our house, eating all the cat and dog food and biscuits he could find.
Cats and pitbull were in guestroom with me.
Finally got ahold of the judge. “Fucking kids let the dog out again. I’ll be right there.” My husband has language that would make a sailor blush, but he said, shocked, “the judge said ‘fucking’ to me, about her kids!” Male privilege. I can’t stop laughing.
Meanwhile, my dog friendly cats wanted out to inspect the new dog. New dog was okay but not very cat friendly. He barked. I had to go down and one by one rescue the cats and bring them back to the guestroom where the pitbull could protect them. Four cats. Cat five stayed hidden in the woodwork.
Long afternoon.
sab
@NotMax: Worked for me this time. Relief that horse was repeated and not running the whole time at that speed.
sab
Alarm just went off. Husband off into traffic again this morning. Grrrrr.
satby
Joe Rogan is the Kardashian family of the resentful white boy set. Famous for being famous, with no talent or value. The ultimate outcome of a culture that bestows celebrity status on people for nothing more than how they dress or what outrageous thing they say. A culture that could have a fraud like TFG elected.
matt the somewhat reasonable
It’s a conflict of interest for record companies to partially own Spotify, with the right to force their signed artists to the platform. Reminiscent of old sharecropping models of exploitation.
evodevo
@sab:
In Muybridge’s day, racehorses ran 3 mile races at that speed. They run 1.5 mile races today at that speed…not a problem for them. (Not to get into a discussion of racing in general, but most of them WANT to run – you have to haul in on the reins constantly to slow them down. It’s in their genes – the more aggressive males get upset when you do)
evap
I subscribe to Spotify, mainly so I can make playlists that I listen to while running, cooking, etc. I’m really torn, but I guess I am going to cancel and find something else. Is there a non-evil service that allows me to create playlists and listen on my phone? What about amazon music? I used to make playlists with itunes, but you have to pay for each song or download from a CD, which is a pain.
lowtechcyclist
The part that still boggles me is the notion that there’s big money to be made off of podcasts.
Remember the “pivot to video” several years back, and how well that worked out? So now we have a “pivot to audio.” O-kay.
raven
@evap:
TIDAL is a global music streaming platform bringing fans closer to artists through unique experiences and the highest sound quality.
raven
From PC magazine,
lowtechcyclist
I miss the days when we had strong antitrust laws, and actually pretty strong enforcement too. There was a time when shit like that wouldn’t have stood a chance.
Kay
@satby:
I just love how cheap and shabby it all is. Spotify is a publisher. Their solution to publishing a bunch of Rogan’s bullshit is to hire a low wage underling to post links to verified information that they didn’t create and didn’t pay for? Could they possibly spend any less on this?
lowtechcyclist
@NotMax: Well played, sir. :-)
raven
@raven: I just signed up for the $1 a month 4 month trial for my bride.
NotMax
@lowtechcyclist
Get in early stocking up on flags for the pivot to semaphore.
;)
lowtechcyclist
Hadn’t thought of either Eve6 or Jill Sobule in a long time.
Ken
I wish the tweet had more information, like what photographic process was used. I have to assume it wasn’t one of the ones that required the subject to sit motionless for two minutes. I mean, a cat will do that happily, just not when you want it to…
cope
@prostratedragon: Thanks for the Glass link. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed that movie. At some point soon, I’ll be streaming it to our living room TV and listening through my “good” speakers. Using them annoys my wife because it requires yet another remote so I normally just watch the tube with its built-in speakers. Not for Koyannisatsi though.
Thanks again.
kindness
I don’t subscribe to any of the streaming services. I’m an old. I still buy artists CDs and load them up on my iPod & phone and listen that way when I’m not throwing the actual CD into a player (the sound quality is better that way). So screw Spotify and the rest who shaft the artists. I want music to survive and in order to do that you have to pay the artists.
Queens Lurker
It’s nice to see Joni’s response but it’s actually something of a surprise as she is a “Morgellons” sufferer and chem-trail believer.
MrsCoachB
@evap: Amazon music has albums, curated playlists and ability to create your own playlist. If you have Prime you should get basic for free, but can upgrade to unlimited for $15 a month, which lets you share with up to 5 friends and family. You can also download playlist so you can listen when there is no or poor signal, called “offline mode”. That’s very handy for us when RVing as often have crappy signal and minimal Wi-Fi.
Tenar Arha
@evap: Ty Burr had a review of Tidal & links to a service that helps transfer playlists
Miss Bianca
@NotMax: ha ha, high five for the Patrick O’Brian reference!
Inspectrix
If I have to boycott Spotify I will go into Brene Brown withdrawal. I am a devoted listener of both her Unlocking Us and Dare to Lead podcasts. Great interviews. Wisdom I use at work and in life.