#Spotify customer service shut down free

He claims he is only seeking to have conversations with people who have “differing opinions.” There are “ very fine people” on both sides of every debate, I guess.īut Rogan’s guests aren’t expressing opinions. Rogan’s defense is a standard feature of the demagogue playbook. It’s the equivalent of those cowardly politicians who send “thoughts and prayers” after every mass shooting while refusing to enact common-sense gun control. If these hollow measures sound familiar, that’s because we’ve seen a dozen other corporations roll out the same shtick, from Facebook to Big Tobacco to the NFL: do just enough to soothe the troubled precincts of the fan base without changing the business model. So the company is hoping to stanch the controversy by having Rogan deliver a tepid apology, promising more oversight and slapping a content warning over episodes containing misinformation. But Rogan is Spotify’s $100 million-dollar cash cow. That’s what YouTube did, when it removed an episode in which a doctor spread inflammatory lies about masks. Spotify could easily put the kibosh on Rogan’s nonsense, by refusing to platform his most egregious guests and assertions. Yet granting Rogan his freedom of speech isn’t the same thing as a private company making hundreds of millions of dollars by monetizing inflammatory misinformation as an entertainment product. Heck, it’s the animating force of the Republican party at this point. There’s no law against spreading despicable and dangerous views. The views Rogan and his guests express are despicable and dangerous. There’s not a lot of nuance in this situation. Suffice it to say, Rogan is one of those dudes who loves to “do his own research,” which includes chatting up guests who not only slander COVID vaccines and common-sense public health measures such as wearing masks, but deny the science of climate change and spout Klan-friendly theories about race. There’s no need for me to amplify these claims. Namely, the various demagogues and quacks who are spreading misinformation about COVID, and thus turning our current public health crisis into a culture-war industry. Then, a week ago, Neil Young - who had clearly given the matter more thought - told Spotify that he wanted his music removed from the service if it continued to provide a platform for Rogan’s most insidious guests. The problem was that I kept hearing online murmurings about Spotify’s partnership with Joe Rogan, the alpha bro podcaster.Īs a loyal American consumer, I ignored this partnership and its moral implications for as long as I could. They got paid when I listened to their songs (maybe not enough, but something.) And I wasn’t exploiting the artists I loved. I was finally able to wean myself from my allegiance to the idea of “owning” music, which took the form of a massive and now useless trove of cassettes and CDs, and transitioned into an ambivalent decade spent amassing a 10,000-song i-Tunes library.

The kid introduced me to dozens of artists and hundreds of great songs, most of which I wouldn’t have found without him and our Spotify connection.

#Spotify customer service shut down free

I was urged to subscribe to Spotify, after many years of resisting streaming services, by my music-loving 13-year-old son, Jude, who immediately recognized the service as a kind of immense digital jukebox, one that made the quest to find new music joyfully convenient.Īfter a lengthy period of using Spotify’s free service, the one with achingly repetitive ads, Jude convinced me two months ago to throw off the shackles of cheapskate-dadism and get the premium subscription, so both of us could stream to our hearts delight. Let’s start with a couple of unassailable truths: I really like Spotify, and I am a big fan of facts and science. Neil Young (Frazer Harrison/Getty Images) requested that his music be removed from the streaming service, if it continued to provide a platform for Rogan's most insidious guests. Schwartz/Getty Images) hosted guests on his Spotify podcast who have spread misinformation about COVID-19.