India Arie is the latest artist to pull her content from Spotify due to its hosting of The Joe Rogan Experience, citing his "problematic" use of "language around race", among other issues with the streaming service.
Arie is pulling both her music and her podcast Songversation from Spotify, saying that fellow musician Neil Young "opened a door that we MUST walk through" when he removed his catalogue from the platform in order to take a stand against COVID-19 misinformation.
Young was joined by Joni Mitchell and Graham Nash, who agreed with the 'Harvest Moon' hitmaker's assertion that Spotify was ignoring Rogan's persistent platforming of vaccine misinformation that could cause death during the pandemic.
Arie said her issues with Rogan were also to do with "his language around race".
"What I am talking about is RESPECT - who gets it and who doesn't. Paying musicians a fraction of a penny? And HIM $100M?" she exclaimed, referring to the deal Spotify struck with Rogan in order to exclusively host his podcast.
"This shows the type of company they are and the company that they keep. I'm tired."
Rogan recently hosted controversial academic Jordan Peterson on his podcast, where they joked about the words used to describe skin tone. Rogan asserted that it was "very strange" to call someone Black unless they're from the "darkest place" in Africa where "they're not wearing any clothes all day".
"I am white - actually that's a lie, too," Peterson chimed in. "I am kind of tan." Remarking on Black academic Michael Eric Dyson's skin colour, he added: "And he was actually not Black, he was sort of brown."
That same episode also came under fire for Peterson's false and generalised claims about climate change and the modelling used by scientists to study it.
Rogan recently apologised in response to the controversy over his podcast in a 10-minute video in which he insisted he "wasn't trying to promote misinformation or be controversial".
"If I pissed you off, I'm sorry," Rogan said. "I will do my best to try to balance out these more controversial viewpoints with other people's perspectives so we can maybe find a better point of view."
Meanwhile, Spotify has updated its platform rules and agreed to add a content advisory to podcast episodes that discuss COVID-19.
"Pick almost any issue and you will find people and opinions on either side of it. Personally, there are plenty of individuals and views on Spotify that I disagree with strongly," Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said in a statement.
"We know we have a critical role to play in supporting creator expression while balancing it with the safety of our users.
"In that role, it is important to me that we don't take on the position of being content censor, while also making sure there are rules in place and consequences for those who violate them."
