Corporations Are Not Your Friends
What the Neil Young Vs. Joe Rogan controversy reveals about Spotify and capitalism's core values.
Photo Credit: Matt Furman
TW: Discussions of antisemitism and violence.
Regardless if you’ve resigned yourself to the fetal position these days (hiiiiii, welcome to the club!), or are doing your part in the Great American Tradition of doomscrolling, this week you most likely came across the news that Neil Young is Mad at Spotify. But with ire and disgust dispensed almost unconsciously these days, it’s important we take the time to talk about events slowly—beyond the adrenal rush of click-bait headlines—and look at our news stories with the prismatic complexity they all possess.
Spotify is the home of Joe Rogan, known by geriatric millennials as the guy who got people to eat cockroaches for money in the early 2000’s, but presently serves as something of an alt-boi podcast King to the far right. During the pandemic, Rogan’s show veered decidedly into the realm of anti-science. This place—at the intersection of open dialogue and dangerous scientific advice without a scientific background—is where Rogan has come under fire specifically for his anti-vaccination rhetoric.
This criticism is not new. Apple canceled a $100 million dollar deal with Rogan in 2020 because of his controversial opinions, after which his show, The Joe Rogan Experience, was promptly picked up by streaming competitor Spotify. In 2021, when Rogan contracted COVID, he shared on social media the numerous drugs he used to treat the virus, including prednisone, monoclonal antibodies (also taken by Trump to treat his COVID), and ivermectin, most commonly used for deworming horses and dogs (though it is sometimes administered to humans in tablet form to treat parasites). While Rogan’s access to robust health care, due to his wealth, no doubt played a significant part in his recovery, it was his support of ivermectin—a drug primarily championed by the alt-right—that alarmed medical professionals. This was—and remains—a drug that pretty much just gives you violent diarrhea. Rogan claimed it was part of the regimen that saved his life.
Enter: Neil Young. Young—a man who previously removed his music from Spotify for their piss poor sound quality (where is the lie?)—let Spotify know that he was fed up with the streaming platform giving Rogan carte blanche to spread vaccine misinformation. He gave them an ultimatum: cancel Rogan, or I’m taking my music away immediately.
Not surprisingly, Spotify let Young walk. Weighing out a deeply devoted cult-like following of UFC-bois (Rogan) with a deeply devoted cult-like following of one-note guitar solos (Young), probably seemed like an easy choice. Young hasn’t had a hit album for decades, and isn’t exactly part of the present cultural zeitgeist. Let the Tommy Bahamas walk!
And Young did walk, loudly. So much so that word of his disgust revealed some even more damning information: that Spotify had received an open letter from 260 health and medical professionals urging Spotify to take action against Rogan’s “mass information” events against vaccinations while promoting ivermectin. Days later, fellow Canuck and longtime buddy Joni Mitchell also made the same demand as Young—and was promptly dropped from the platform.
Perhaps the corporate heads at Spotify expected this controversy to end there, but within a week, Spotify lost almost $4 billion in market value. Not exactly chump change. Their devotion to Rogan has also sparked a renewed look at the platform’s surveillance-like tracking of user’s listening patterns, and their ludicrously minimal payment of artists for their music rights. Surprise! Spotify is greedy!
Spotify’s reduction in market share also reveals the true barometer for social change in our current age: the stock market. While we want companies to make changes simply because they might benefit society as a whole, this thinking is, unfortunately, naïve. We live in a system devoted to consumption. Capitalism is hinged upon what we buy, how much we buy, and continuing to buy more, forever and ever, amen. This is precisely why politicians and pundits continue to fixate on the health of the economy rather than the health of the biosphere. Is it realistic then to expect Spotify to step away from the profit gain of Rogan’s listenership within a system that places profit as its central value system?
In September 2021, Rogan shared a fan-made video on his Instagram that compared vaccine mandates to the Holocaust. Joe Rogan has roughly 11 million listeners. That’s a powerful level of sway and influence for someone who simply wants to “just ask questions” then openly espouses hate speech. By siding with Rogan, Spotify is effectively co-signing these antisemitic beliefs.
America has placed too much value on the opinions of celebrities for far too long. Some attribute this to the decades-long disintegration and defunding of public education. Others say it’s an inevitable result of a society whose elected officials have approached the need for communal care with a collective shrug (Thank you, Benevolent Leaders, for my four rapid tests!). Would Rogan be as powerful of an influence if free healthcare was offered to all Americans? Would there be such a level of vaccine hesitation if Americans were given clear-headed, scientific advice about the vaccines from scientists at the start of the pandemic and not from Donald Trump? Would there be greater trust in the vaccines if we had a healthcare system not driven by the profit of private companies?
I think we are experiencing a sort of Oz-behind-the-curtain reveal of what we expect from corporations like Spotify. It was only in recent months, for example, where news broke that AT&T funded the creation of One America News Network, a channel that has actively spread far-right propaganda such as the Big Lie. AT&T owns HBO, which is considered a bastion of progressive storytelling, including a show (Succession), about a Murdoch-esque billionaire family that owns a far right media company and everyone is miserable. It also owns CNN. The paradoxes are endless.
Yet we keep hoping that corporations will take the place of communal care and provide us with protection from harm. The disappointment we experience when they choose not do so for the sake of profit contributes to the collective grief so many have been feeling. Corporations do not care about us. They are not entities with a conscience. They are vehicles for capitalist expansion. Spotify is no exception.
This viral tweet from last week best encapsulates the mental state of so many in this moment:
Rogan’s well-known detractors like Young and Mitchell believe he is perpetuating harm, and they are using their power and influence to shine a light on his destructive influence. They can afford to do so because of the breadth of their influence, and the depth of their bank accounts (It was revealed to the dismay of many that Young shifted his catalogue to . . . Amazon Music). Since beginning this essay, Rogan has pledged to “try harder” to get people with differing opinions on his show, and Spotify has released updated advisory warnings for Rogan’s content. These efforts feel a lot like political theater and PR harm reduction.
Kopper’s Paradox of Tolerance comes to my mind in this moment. If a society is tolerant without limits, ultimately it is consumed by the intolerance it allows to run freely. Rogan’s desire for “open dialogues” about vaccine hesitation when it is intrinsically tied to hate speech is an empty statement. Harboring hateful ideologies lays the groundwork for tolerating violence. Violence is not free speech.
So will Spotify users abandon their playlists in protest? Is pivoting to Apple Music or quitting streaming entirely (an action I’ve seen suggested on social media) a step that many are willing to take? Is it even effective to simply pivot to another gigantic corporation? Apple knowingly used child labor for years to reduce costs. There is no moral high ground when it comes to companies this enormous.
Perhaps the takeaway from this current moment is how deeply mired we are in the tentacles of this predatory system. The chasm of care from the top down creates space for “alternative” figures, lacking expertise, to become mouthpieces for hate. Until we redesign our culture to be one of care, conspiracy theories will propagate, with a lineup of charlatans ready to take the mantle—and profit from it all.
Until next time . . .
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