News Print & Digital

Daniel Ek: Too Early to Know if Joe Rogan Controversy Will Impact Spotify

Ek spoke to employees, some of whom reportedly pressed him on why the company continues to allow Rogan to host shows that indulge in anti-vaccine/mandate rhetoric.

Published

4 months ago

February 4, 2022

Ryan Hedrick

Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

The controversy at Spotify involving Joe Rogan disseminating alleged COVID misinformation was addressed this week by CEO Daniel Ek.

Ek hosted a town hall event where he spoke to employees, some of whom reportedly pressed Ek on why the company continues to allow Rogan to host shows that indulge in anti-vaccine/mandate rhetoric.

“If we want even a shot at achieving our bold ambitions, it will mean having content on Spotify that many of us may not be proud to be associated with,” he said. “Not anything goes, but there will be opinions, ideas, and beliefs that we disagree with strongly and even makes us angry or sad.”

Ek also addressed investors. He said the company saw a double-digit increase in the number of monthly active users that listened to a podcast during Q4 compared to the prior quarter.

This week, Spotify also revealed that it was going to start placing advisory labels on podcasts that contained content related to the pandemic. Ek shouldered the blame for not acting on this type of thing, sooner.

“We should have done it earlier, and that’s on me,” he said. “We don’t change our policies based on one creator nor do we change it based on any media cycle,” Ek said. “And while Joe has a massive audience, he’s actually the No. 1 podcast in more than 90 markets, he also has to abide by those policies.”

Elk said as far as the Rogan-COVID misinformation controversy that has ensnared the company, it’s too early to tell whether this past week’s event will have an impact on subscribers.

“It’s too early to know what the impact will be,” Ek said. “Usually, when we’ve had controversies in the past, those are measured in months and not days.”

Ryan Hedrick

Ryan Hedrick serves as the Co-Host of the Morning News Express at WFMD. He started in radio at 17 years old, doing sports and news for his high school radio station. He then spent several years at WFMD in Frederick, MD before joining WBEN in Buffalo, NY. In 2016, while working at WIBW-AM in Topeka KS, Hedrick earned the Kansas Association of Broadcasters (KAB) award for Major Market enterprise reporting. Hedrick grew up in Southern California where he attended Cal State University of Northridge. He can be found on Twitter @SureToCover.

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News Print & Digital

Bloomberg Media, iHeartMedia Announce Podcast Partnership

The first slate of podcasts will see five shows debut this year and will ultimately distribute more than a dozen new original podcasts as part of their multi-year agreement.

Published

3 hours ago

May 27, 2022

Eduardo Razo

Bloomberg Media and iHeartMedia have announced a partnership that will see a new slate of original podcasts featuring a combination of daily and weekly news programs and narrative-style limited series.

The first slate of podcasts will see five shows debut this year and will ultimately distribute more than a dozen new original podcasts as part of their multi-year agreement.

“Bloomberg Crypto” is the first of the five podcasts launching this year and will debut next month. Bloomberg’s reporting team will tease out what’s actually important in the crypto conversation in this daily podcast.

In a couple of months, “Bedrock, USA” will be the second to debut during the summer as this show dives into how a group of people who didn’t like what they saw happening in their local governments and decided to get involved.

The final three podcasts will come this fall, with two of them debuting in September with “The Big Take,” giving its listeners the most urgent stories of the day – on business, markets, economics, finance, politics, technology, and more.

“In Trust” will be a limited series about how associates of one of the wealthiest families in Osage County, Oklahoma, and “Crash Course,” which debuts in October, will bring listeners straight into the arenas where epic business and social upheavals occur.

Eduardo Razo

Eduardo Razo is the Assistant Content Editor for BNM, which includes writing daily news stories on the news media industry. He can be found on Twitter @eddierazo_ or you can reach him by email at eddie1991razo@gmail.com.

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News Print & Digital

Joe Rogan: “Marijuana Is the Perfect Drug for Me”

Rogan revealed that marijuana helps him regulate his personality

Published

14 hours ago

May 27, 2022

Ryan Hedrick

Podcaster Joe Rogan revealed that marijuana helps him regulate his personality. Rogan made the admission on episode #1824 of “TheJoe Rogan Experience” Thursday.

A transcript posted on Mediate details a conversation that Rogan had with MIT scientist and podcaster Lex Fridman. The conversation about drugs started with a talk about the Johnny Depp defamation trial.

Fridman joked that Rogan could be an expert witness on drugs and alcohol for the trial. “No, I can’t be on drugs cause I — there’s too many drugs I’m uninitiated in like no cocaine experience whatsoever. None.”

Fridman responded by asking Rogan if there’s a part of his life where he wishes he would have experienced that?

“It’s good to get crazy. Getting crazy is good for comedians. Like it’s good to get drunk. It’s good to get — I have a very specific kind of mind where my ego should not be encouraged,” Rogan said.

“Marijuana is the perfect drug for me. Cause marijuana calms me down, makes me sweeter, much more friendly, much more affectionate, much more kind, much more generous, and more creative,” added Rogan.

Ryan Hedrick

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News Print & Digital

FOX Nation Will Stream Debates Between Prominent Senators

The first debate will feature Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT). The event will be moderated by Bret Baier.

Published

14 hours ago

May 27, 2022

Ryan Hedrick

FOX Nation will stream a series of debates between prominent U.S. Senators starting next month called “The Senate Project.” The first debate will feature Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT). The event will be moderated by Bret Baier.

In a release, the network said, “in a time of deep political polarization in America—and a 50-50 split between Democrats and Republicans in the Senate—the goal of The Senate Project is for the public to hear leading senators from competing ends of the political spectrum.”

The debates will be 60-minute Oxford-style debates which will allow senators to engage in extended, thoughtful, wide-ranging debate while exploring areas of constructive disagreement and searching for the bipartisan compromise that has been a hallmark of the Senate for more than two centuries.

The second debate, hosted by the Bipartisan Policy Center, will be held in July at George Washington University, carried live and on-demand across C-SPAN platforms, including streamed on C-SPAN Now. A third debate will be held by the Orrin G. Hatch Foundation in Utah this fall.

“We initiated this idea in response to what is the most serious division in this country in decades,” said Bruce A. Percelay, chairman of the board of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute. “It is our hope that this effort will help demonstrate that compromise in the U.S. Senate is actually possible.”

“We are pleased to partner with the Bipartisan Policy Center, the Orrin G. Hatch Foundation, and the Edward M. Kennedy Institute to present this full debate without interruption to our FOX Nation subscribers,” added Jay Wallace, President & Executive Editor of FOX News Media.

The Senate Project kicks off at 12 noon EDT on Monday, June 13.