The last week has been a difficult one for Spotify, with the spotlight shone directly at its handling of recent controversy surrounding its flagship podcast 'The Joe Rogan Experience' and how it promotes misinformation.
Last week, musician Neil Young issued a statement forcing the streaming giant to choose either Rogan's podcast or his music. However, it was the 'Harvest Moon' singer who lost out. Shortly after, Joni Mitchell followed in a similar vein.
Now, Rogan has had his say on the matter In an almost 10 minute long video posted on his Instagram account. Rogan first thanked his fans for the love he had received over the last few days.
He then defended his podcast saying, "A lot of people have a distorted perception of what I do."
The controversy stemmed specifically from two episodes of the show where Rogan's guests were Dr. Robert Malone, a widely criticised MRNA vaccine sceptic and Peter McCullough, a cardiologist and COVID conspiracy theorist.
"I will do my best to try to balance out these more controversial viewpoints with other people's perspectives, so we can maybe find a better point of view," Rogan said in the video. "I want to show all kinds of opinions so that we can all figure out what's going on and not just about COVID, but everything about health, fitness, wellness, the state of the world itself.
"It’s a strange responsibility to have this many viewers and listeners," the comedian continued. "It's very strange and it's nothing that I prepared for, and it's nothing that I ever anticipated. I am going to do my best in the future to balance things out."
Rogan said he was open to the idea of having viewholders on either side of a topic appear back to back for a more coherent and balanced approach.
Rogen also stated that he was a big fan of Neil Young, "No hard feelings towards Neil Young and definitely no hard feelings towards Joni Mitchell," he said. "I love her too."
Spotify acquired Rogan's show in 2020, in a deal worth more than $100m. 'The Joe Rogan Experience' is now Spotify's most popular podcast and one of the biggest in the world.
