Spotify continues to remove Joe Rogan episodes • Hacker News Board

Re: Spotify continues to remove Joe Rogan episodes

#171

Post by alkonaut » Fri, Apr 09, 2021, 10:05 PM UTC

fareesh wrote: post #138

idownvoted wrote: post #69

Whom does Spotify try to aquisice here? Their users? Their content creators? Or rather their staff? All 3 groups could be possible reasons. But given how little median content creators matter to the organization, users and staff are more likely. But if it were the users, then why buy Joe Rogan's users at all? Especially at a record braking price? This makes me believe it's more likely staff. If that is the case one h…

Society in the west seems to not know how to deal with this new variety of bullying. By cloaking their bullying in the veil of righteousness, bullies are able to engage in self-aggrandisement to satisfy the tyrannical need to shape the world in the image that they desire, without engaging in the civilized discourse and debate that would preclude such decision making. The justification thrown around is that the cause…

What's the "bullying" here exactly? Removing Alex Jones episodes?

Re: Spotify continues to remove Joe Rogan episodes

#172

Post by jonas21 » Fri, Apr 09, 2021, 10:06 PM UTC

patorjk wrote: post #57

basisword wrote: post #13

>> Rogan, on the other hand, has confirmed that Spotify removed certain shows as a condition of their $100 million agreement with him. “There were a few episodes they didn’t want on their platform, and I was like ‘okay, I don’t care’,” Rogan shared in a recent interview with guest Fahim Anwar. It's part of their deal. Nothing to see here.

Wait, you left off the next sentence, which is very important: > Whether Rogan understood that several dozen shows were being removed — and may still be getting removed — is also unclear. 42 of his shows have been removed. Even out of 1631 shows, that seems like more than a few. For $100 million he may not care, but for general listeners its a little unnerving that Spotify would be doing this. I'm a grown adult, I ca…

It's unclear... to the author of the article who seems not to have actually talked to Joe Rogan or Spotify.

Re: Spotify continues to remove Joe Rogan episodes

#173

Post by HKH2 » Fri, Apr 09, 2021, 10:06 PM UTC

quickthrowman wrote: post #133

aksss wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing to see here (literally, or listen to), is how Joe, despite his assertion that there are no limits from Spotify, makes decisions on guests and talking points while someone at spotify holds a hammer over his hand vis a vis killing old episodes. He knows the hosting party doesn't like certain content, and will eliminate episodes that violate some murky line of political correctness - it's impossible that such…

Was Joe Rogan forced to sign the $100M contract with Spotify? If the answer is “no”, then he willingly accepted this contractual arrangement, and all the benefits and consequences of it.

Right. The GP is talking about how Joe has been pretending that nothing has changed.

Re: Spotify continues to remove Joe Rogan episodes

#174

Post by JumpCrisscross » Fri, Apr 09, 2021, 10:08 PM UTC

fareesh wrote: post #138

idownvoted wrote: post #69

Whom does Spotify try to aquisice here? Their users? Their content creators? Or rather their staff? All 3 groups could be possible reasons. But given how little median content creators matter to the organization, users and staff are more likely. But if it were the users, then why buy Joe Rogan's users at all? Especially at a record braking price? This makes me believe it's more likely staff. If that is the case one h…

Society in the west seems to not know how to deal with this new variety of bullying. By cloaking their bullying in the veil of righteousness, bullies are able to engage in self-aggrandisement to satisfy the tyrannical need to shape the world in the image that they desire, without engaging in the civilized discourse and debate that would preclude such decision making. The justification thrown around is that the cause…

> Society in the west seems to not know how to deal with this new variety of bullying

If by new you mean new to the Roman Republic, sure. But pretty much every politician from the first kings and village elders justified what they did, good or bad, as part of the fight for righteousness.

Re: Spotify continues to remove Joe Rogan episodes

#175

Post by paxys » Fri, Apr 09, 2021, 10:09 PM UTC

toshk wrote: post #55

basisword wrote: post #13

>> Rogan, on the other hand, has confirmed that Spotify removed certain shows as a condition of their $100 million agreement with him. “There were a few episodes they didn’t want on their platform, and I was like ‘okay, I don’t care’,” Rogan shared in a recent interview with guest Fahim Anwar. It's part of their deal. Nothing to see here.

He often stated that nothing will change and no censorship would take place because of the move to spotify. For many he was one of the last credible places that would give a place to more extreme voices, even if he might not agree. For years he actively advocated free speech and integrity. Commercially it might be part of the deal, but it's understandable many of his listeners feel like he sold out.

Sounds pretty hypocritical to sign a massive deal with a censorship clause included and tell users "don't worry nothing will change".

Re: Spotify continues to remove Joe Rogan episodes

#176

Post by nbardy » Fri, Apr 09, 2021, 10:10 PM UTC

idownvoted wrote: post #69

Whom does Spotify try to aquisice here? Their users? Their content creators? Or rather their staff? All 3 groups could be possible reasons. But given how little median content creators matter to the organization, users and staff are more likely. But if it were the users, then why buy Joe Rogan's users at all? Especially at a record braking price? This makes me believe it's more likely staff. If that is the case one h…

> will toss their political agenda around the office while other employees, intimidated by cancel-culture, shy away from calling out the obvious BS

This is why it spreads so fast. You have one person who is loud, assertive and aggressive. And most people just want to avoid politics so they nod their heads.

Re: Spotify continues to remove Joe Rogan episodes

#177

Post by alkonaut » Fri, Apr 09, 2021, 10:10 PM UTC

luckylion wrote: post #146

sn_master wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Whom does Spotify try to aquisice here? YouTube always claims they're demonetizing videos for their advertisers. i.e companies threatening to either boycott advertising on the platform entirely, or ones who don't their products appear in videos with certain content. Maybe Spotify is doing it for the same reason?

According to this [1] Spotify makes 91% of their revenue and nearly 100% of their profits based on premium membership, not ads. I find it unlikely that they're messing with their users' interests to make advertisers happy that make up a rounding error in the profits. [1] https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/120314/spoti...

I (N=1) would seriously consider cancelling my Spotify subscription if Spotify kept pushing Alex Jones. It's not that far fetched.

Re: Spotify continues to remove Joe Rogan episodes

#178

Post by tayo42 » Fri, Apr 09, 2021, 10:10 PM UTC

skohan wrote: post #116

Pfhreak wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing that makes me less worried is that we're probably at one of the most open periods in history. Don't like Spotify? You've got about a million other options. Rogan freely chose to accept some limits in exchange for a truckload of cash. He was already doing quite well without Spotify, from what I understand. I think the framing that he was somehow unable to succeed without accepting censorship is a little off…

I'm not that worried about Spotify and 40 odd episodes from the Joe Rogan catalog, but it does fit into a larger narrative. I am somewhat concerned that a hand-full of companies can effectively remove someone from the public discourse. Nobody was too upset when Alex Jones got deplatformed, but there is something a little unnerving about the fact that Twitter was allowed to basically kill certain news stories leading…

If Twitter was actually killing stories effectively, why do you know about it?

Re: Spotify continues to remove Joe Rogan episodes

#179

Post by S_A_P » Fri, Apr 09, 2021, 10:12 PM UTC

nitrogen wrote: post #45

S_A_P wrote: post #27

I wonder if/how much the move cost his listener ship. I see in the comments pleas for Joe to come back to Youtube. I dont know why this happens but Spotify does not work with UConnect on my Jeep. It plays for 1-2 seconds and then mutes. Spotify is the only music/audio platform that doesnt work with Uconnect, but that immediately removes it from being played in my car. Long car rides are where I consume podcasts, so n…

Check if your phone has a per-app setting for "optimize battery usage" or "sleep background apps" or something like that. Spotify was stopping 2 seconds after I turned my phone's screen off, and disabling the battery optimization fixed it.

Thanks nitrogen- Unfortunately it has been a consistent thing across phones with the common link being my 1 year before apple car play UConnect receiver. Pretty sure that is the culprit. It will works with an iPhone cable connected(but I hate cables in my car), but bluetooth audio does not(spotify only) I dont see any preference for battery usage for spotify and I have background app refresh enabled.

Re: Spotify continues to remove Joe Rogan episodes

#180

Post by JPKab » Fri, Apr 09, 2021, 10:13 PM UTC

ljm wrote: post #140

nickysielicki wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's been reported in the past that it is staff. Spotify has 5,000+ employees -- I wouldn't assume for a second that it's the tech workers doing this, I suspect it's probably HR and marketing and so on. It's a big bureaucratic organization. I like to think if I was at Spotify, and I saw people holding the company hostage like this -- threatening to quit (or whatever) if they don't get their way -- that I would stand…

I heard second hand that the folks working at Spotify were incredibly unhappy about this Joe Rogan deal, and one of the reasons for that was because leadership steamrolled over any concerns they had. And there were many. I don't really know who this guy is or why you'd spend 100 million on him to secure a deal. But he's walking away with that money and Spotify is left with the infighting. They fucked themselves over…

The only reason I have a Spotify account is for Joe Rogan's podcast. I'm a Youtube premium member, so all the music I need comes from Google, except for Joe Rogan.

He's a pro weed, universal health care loving, self-described left of center guy big in the MMA and stand-up comedy circles.

He now has the world's most popular podcast, but because he frequently has guests who are right wing, despite debating them about these things on the show, he is attacked for giving these folks a platform to spread their ideas.

Due to his expertise in MMA and the fact that he's a formally trained fighter and martial artist, he was shaken by an event he witnessed: The fracturing of a woman's skull by Fallon Fox, a transgender woman who hid the fact that she had previously been a male, and had recently transitioned from the league. He commented on it.

This put him in very hot water with the trans activist community, despite the fact that the vast majority of the American public has similar concerns.

The reality is this deal made Spotify a lot of money and brought them listeners and advertising revenue. You don't know who he is, but you aren't the target audience, and your opinions and the opinions of the employees don't matter. Spotify exists to make investors money by creating value for the listeners. The employees shouldn't have any power over how it does that, because they own as much as the equity they've been given, and nothing more.