The controversy around podcast episodes from host Joe Rogan continues. Could the ultimate move be a move by Rogan from Spotify Technology (NYSE:SPOT) to a rival platform?
What Happened: "The Joe Rogan Experience," a podcast hosted exclusively on Spotify, has drawn criticism from doctors and rockers like Neil Young. Many of the complaints center on Rogan’s reported misinformation over the COVID-19 vaccine.
Over the weekend, 113 past episodes of The Joe Rogan Experience were removed for reasons that included “racially insensitive language,” according to Spotify CEO Daniel Ek. The Spotify CEO said the episodes were removed by Rogan after a discussion was held between Rogan, his team and Spotify.
Rogan “chose to remove a number of episodes from Spotify,” Ek said.
Rogan apologized over the weekend for using past racial slurs including using the “N-word,” which he said was “regretful and shameful.”
Related Link: Spotify Falls On Q4 Earnings Amid Neil Young, Joe Rogan Squabble
What’s Next: Spotify has announced an update to its policy on COVID-19 content, which could limit episodes and guests for Rogan in the future. Rogan has been missing in action from the Spotify platform for a week as the backlash grows.
Rogan signed an exclusive deal to move "The Joe Rogan Experience" to Spotify in 2020 and has been one of the top podcasts on the platform.
One platform that would welcome Rogan with open arms is Rumble, a company that prides itself as a “neutral video” platform.
“Rumble is designed to be the rails and independent infrastructure that is immune to cancel culture,” Rumble founder and CEO Chris Pavlovski said. “We are a movement that does not stifle, censor or punish creativity and believe everyone benefits from access to a neutral network with diverse ideas and opinions.”
Adding Rogan could provide a significant boost to Rumble, which has landed some deals with large voices that felt silent on other social media platforms.
Dan Bongino has seen his channel on Rumble hit 2 million subscribers in less than 18 months, a figure that is more than twice the number of subscribers he had on YouTube, a unit of Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL).
Prominent politicians like Rand Paul and Marjorie Taylor Greene have turned to Rumble to share content with followers after being suspended on other platforms like YouTube and Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR).
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz openly called for Rogan to move from Spotify to Rumble in a tweet put out over the weekend.
Big Tech sucks.@Spotify gives in to the mob. Cowards.@joerogan should move to @rumblevideo https://t.co/daYx1IFtDr
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) February 5, 2022
Rumble highlighted Rogan in their investor presentation last year, sharing a quote from the popular podcaster.
“As long as places like Rumble exist, you know, and I think they’re going to grow,” Rogan said on Oct. 26, 2021.
“We’ll keep saying the name Rumble. Get people to keep going over there. I’m not over there, but I certainly would be.”
Could this quote be the ultimate foreshadowing of Rogan leaving Spotify to join the platform?
Rumble Growth: Rumble, which is going public via SPAC CF Acquisition Corp VI (NASDAQ:CFVI), recently announced a record-breaking January.
The company reported 10.8 billion minutes watched in January and an average of 4,383 hours of uploaded video per day.
Monthly active users were up 19% in January on a month over-month basis. Monthly active users stood at 39 million at the end of January 2022.
“On the heels of the decline in U.S. and Canadian users at Facebook, and with Rumble’s impressive January growth, it’s clear that we are witnessing a major shift on the internet. Users are sending a clear message that platforms supporting the free and open internet will be the future,” Pavlovski said of growth and competition with Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:FB) unit Facebook.
Price Action: CFVI shares are up 20.28% to $15.36 on Monday.
SPOT shares are down 2.02% at $170.90.
