(Bloomberg) -- Spotify Technology SA doesn't give podcast host Joe Rogan special treatment and will punish him if his show violates its content guidelines, Chief Executive Officer Daniel Ek said Wednesday.
“While Joe has a massive audience -- he's the No. 1 podcast in more than 90 markets -- he also has to abide by those policies,” Ek told analysts on a conference call. “We don't change our policies based on one creator.”
Doctors, musicians and podcast hosts have criticized Rogan for sharing misleading information about Covid-19 and the pandemic. Singer-songwriter Neil Young pulled his music from Spotify's audio streaming service in protest, while the hosts of a Spotify science podcast asked why the company allowed Rogan to offer “skewed and inaccurate” information about vaccines.
Ek said he couldn't predict what effect the Rogan rebellion would have on subscriptions.
“I would say it's too early to know what the impact may be and usually when we've had controversy in the past, those are measured in months, and not days,” Ek said. “I feel good about where we are in relation to that, and obviously top line trends looks very healthy still.”
The company is still figuring out how to protect listeners without censoring creative expression, Ek said. The company hosts more than 3.6 million podcasts and tens of millions of songs, many of which express controversial points of view. Ek published Spotify's content guidelines on Sunday in response to the recent crisis.
Rogan does occupy a different position in the Spotify universe than most creators. The company paid him more than $100 million for the exclusive rights to his show.
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