On Monday, India Arie announced on Instagram that she was pulling her music from Spotify. Joe Rogan plays his podcasts through the streaming service and she only stated it was due to his “language around race.” On Friday, Arie explains further in her Instagram Story Highlight she titled “Boycott.” The post included a mashup video of Joe Rogan saying the N-word more than two dozen times. She stated”
He shouldn’t even be uttering the word. Don’t even say it, under any context. Don’t say it. That’s where I stand. I have always stood there.
There is another video of Rogan telling a story of being in a Black neighborhood, he referred to as “Planet of the Apes.”
Arie is only one of hundreds of musicians and celebrities who have asked to have their work removed from Spotify. Nonetheless, most people have left the streaming service because they feel Rogan is using his show, “The Joe Rogan Experience” to spread misinformation about COVID.
Neil Young and Joni Mitchell asked Spotify to remove their music because they felt the podcaster was risking people’s lives with his anti-vaccine rhetoric. David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and Graham Nash have also asked that their music be removed.
In response to the anger expressed, Spotify published “long-standing platform rules.” This is the first time the streaming service has done this. Additionally, they added a content advisory to any podcast that includes a discussion about COVID-19.
Arie states that Rogan is free to say whatever he wishes and she has the same right. She also had this to say to her followers:
Spotify is built on the back of the music streaming. So they take this money that’s built from streaming and they pay this guy $100 million, but they pay us .003 percent of a penny? Just take me off. That’s where I’m at.
She then encouraged her fans to “delete Spotify.”
Concerning the COVID content, Rogan stated that he will try to balance out his controversial viewpoints in hopes to come to a new perspective.
Written by Jeanette VIetti
Sources:
EW: India Arie posts clips of Joe Rogan using the N-word amid her Spotify boycott: ‘Don’t say it’; by Lauren Huff
Spotify Newsroom: Spotify Platform Rules
The Independent: Joe Rogan: India Arie shares resurfaced clips of podcaster using N-word 22 times; by Jacob Stolworthy
Featured Image Courtesy of Sorosh Tavakoli’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Inline Image by Steven Crowder Courtesy of Wikimedia – Creative Commons License