The company has yet to publicly address the slurs, but Spotify recently removed dozens of episodes of the podcast. Arie posted it on her Instagram, using the hashtag #DeleteSpotify. The scrutiny only intensified when a video compilation emerged last week showing Rogan repeatedly using racial slurs. Other artists followed suit, including Joni Mitchell and Roxane Gay.

24 when musician Neil Young asked to have his music removed because of concerns that Rogan was promoting skepticism about the COVID-19 vaccines. The company had 31% of the 524 million music streaming subscriptions worldwide in the second quarter of 2021, more than double that of second-place Apple Music, according to Midia Research. Spotify reports having 406 million active monthly users, up nearly 20% from last year, and advertising has grown largely because of podcasting. Having Rogan on Spotify is like having a political party with Donald Trump as the presidential candidate and liberal Elizabeth Warren as vice president. “They need to settle up with Rogan, let him go to a home that will be consistent with who he is. The conservative Rogan stands in contrast to the much more liberal musicians who generate the bulk of Spotify's profits, he said.

The bottom-line question should be pretty simple for Spotify, said Erik Gordon, a University of Michigan business and law professor. “This is a big moment of reckoning for entertainment and streaming platforms to see where the window is, what's over the line.' “There's some real self-examination to be doing beyond Joe,” Wihbey said.

'The streaming site also has to decide whether offensive words are allowable elsewhere on its app, where songs with racist, homophobic and anti-immigrant messages are available,' said John Wihbey, a Northeastern University professor and specialist in emerging technologies. Spotify CEO Says He Feels Good About How He Handled Joe Rogan Controversy as Stock Drops

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