On Tuesday, streaming service Spotify began its exclusive agreement with podcaster Joe Rogan, but outraged fans noticed several episodes missing from the alleged complete list of shows. Those episodes mysteriously nearly all featured popular and influential conservative commentators who’ve been mostly censored from the mainstream internet.
Fans were quick to take to social media and point out that some of Rogan’s most memorable and iconic episodes were missing from Spotify, even thought they’d previously been allowed on YouTube, Rogan’s former platform. Those episodes included interviews with Gavin McInnes, Milo Yiannopoulos, Alex Jones, Owen Benjamin, Stefan Molyneaux, and Sargon of Akkad.
Spotify has deleted dozens of episodes of the Joe Rogan Experience from their platform.
Here are some notable deletions:
#538 – Stefan Molyneux
#702 – Milo Yiannapolis
#710 – Gavin McInnes
#911 – Alex Jones
#980 – Chris D’Elia
#979 – Sargon of Akkad
#998 – Owen Benjamin pic.twitter.com/D3Y9zi69VQ— YOUTUBE.COM / VITO (@VitoGesualdi) September 1, 2020
Mikhaila Peterson, the 28-year-old daughter of Jordan Peterson who blogs about health, also claimed her episode had been removed from the new, cleaned-up canon of content.
Okay. Getting demonetized from @youtube is one thing. At least they didn’t shut down my channel. However this is COMPLETELY different. ?
?@spotify is NOT uploading select @joerogan episodes including my episode. pic.twitter.com/r4HCPhr35j— Mikhaila Peterson (@MikhailaAleksis) September 1, 2020
In July, Rogan announced he signed an exclusive licensing deal with Spotify to move his top-rated podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, from YouTube to the subscriber streaming service for a reported $100 million, according to Billboard.
Rogan launched his podcast in December 2009 and today it is often rated the top podcast in the world. Both Spotify and Rogan tweeted announcements Tuesday that all episodes of the JRE were now live and free on the platform—but some were missing, according to fans. Neither Rogan nor Spotify addressed the censored content, leaving many fans agitated, but not surprised given many people’s exasperation with Silicon Valley censorship and lawmakers’ unwillingness to address it.
Joe Rogan’s podcast moved to Spotify today in accordance with his $100 million dollar deal, and fans are noticing that various episodes are now missing from the archives.
Including episode #911 with Alex Jones.
Of course.
— Mark Dice (@MarkDice) September 1, 2020
Legal expert Robert Barnes tweeted, “@joerogan led a lot of people to believe he would not be censored by @spotify, that helped boost Spotify‘s stock value & Spotify subscriptions. Can those people sue now that those promises turned out to be a lie?” Another user asked, “you really gonna let @Spotify pick and choose which shows to upload? Wack.”
@joerogan led a lot of people to believe he would not be censored by @Spotify, that helped boost Spotify’s stock value & Spotify subscriptions. Can those people sue now that those promises turned out to be a lie?
— Robert Barnes (@Barnes_Law) September 1, 2020
Spotify’s value has fluctuated greatly in recent years, reaching as high as $43 billion, according to Digital Music News when Google was in talks of purchasing the company in cash. In 2018, SEC documents show exactly 65 percent of Spotify was owned by just six parties: the firm’s co-founders, Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon (30.6 percent of ordinary shares between them); Tencent Holdings Ltd. (9.1 percent); and a run of three asset-management specialists: Baillie Gifford (11.8 percent), Morgan Stanley (7.3 percent), and T.Rowe Price Associates (6.2 percent), according to Rolling Stone.
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