FirstNeil Young, thenJoni Mitchell. NextPrince HarryandMeghan Markle? Big-name talent continues to stand up against the streaming giant Spotify as its controversial podcast,The Joe Rogan Experience, faces criticism for propagating harmful misinformation about COVID-19.
Harry and Meghan havent ripped up their contract yet, but their Archewell Foundation has issueda statementnoting that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have shared concerns to Spotify about the all-too-real consequences of COVID-19 misinformation on its platform. Moreover, the statement expresses that they first brought this issue to the companys attention in April. The pressure on Spotify has intensified of late with anopen letterfrom 270 doctors, nurses, professors, and health scientists also raising concerns about pandemic misinformation on the platform and pointing to a recentJoe Roganepisode, where his guest, Dr.Robert Malone,promoted unfounded conspiracy theories.
When Harry and Meghan stepped down from their royal duties, they brokered deals with media companies like Spotify and Netflix as opposed to roaming around America like vagabonds as if this were a Mark Twain story. The Sussexess company, Archewell, formed Archewell Audio and signed anexclusive agreementwith Spotify in December 2020. At the time, the streaming behemoth wrote that Archewells action of embracing the extraordinary capacity of podcasts on Spotify while also seeking to elevate underrepresented voices is a testament to their appreciation for the potential of audio storytelling.
The Archewell deal is worth a reported $25 million. Since the announcement, theres only been one item produced, a December 2020 holiday special, 33-minutes in length, that features the first heard words from Harry and Meghans son,Archie, plus appearances byStacey Abrams,Christina Adane,Jos Andrs,Dr. Bren Brown,Rachel Cargle,Deepak Chopra,James Corden,Matt Haig,Sir Elton John,Hussain Manawer,Naomi Osaka,Tyler Perry, andGeorge the Poet. As recently aslast week, Spotify was still hiring additional producers to work on Archewell content.
Nevertheless, Sundays statement from an Archewell spokesperson suggests that there is a degree of unease between the two parties. The statement in full reads: Since the inception of Archewell, we have worked to address the real-time global misinformation crisis.
It continues: Hundreds of millions of people are affected by the serious harms of rampant mis- and disinformation every day. Last April, our co-founders began expressing concerns to our partners at Spotify about the all-too-real consequences of COVID-19 misinformation on its platform. We have continued to express our concerns to Spotify to ensure changes to its platform are made to help address this public health crisis. We look to Spotify to meet this moment and are committed to continuing our work together as it does.
Archewell does not mention Rogan by name in their statement. Rogan has an exclusive licensing deal with Spotify reported to be worth over $100 million. The Joe Rogan Experience was Spotifys number-one podcast worldwide in 2021, and is an endless well of controversy. One day Rogan is just a regular guy talking about tripping out in an isolation tank like the movie Altered States, or landing good media gets like Kanye West or Bernie Sanders for lengthy, free-form discussions. Other days, hes using his platform to let the ridiculous blowhard Jordan Peterson partake in absurd blather.
And then there are days, like December 31, 2021, when he hosted Malone, who compared the current climate to Nazi Germany and promoted a mass formation psychosis conspiracy theory. Malone has been dismissed from Twitter.
Both CNN and Reuters have reached out to Spotify for comment, and did not hear back.
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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Send Spotify a Warning Shot Over COVID Misinformation - Vanity Fair