Music Ally Focus #44: Spotify, Joe Rogan, Neil Young, and #DeleteSpotify – what does the streaming giant need to do now, how complicated is this – and should streaming platforms moderate content?

Spotify has a lot on its plate all of a sudden. In 2020 it signed the controversial, blunt-smoking, bow-hunting podcaster Joe Rogan in a $100m deal - and while there has always been pushback against some of his guests, this week things came to a head, as Neil Young asked Spotify to choose between him or Rogan due to the podcaster's Covid-19 views. His music is now being removed from the service. In the same week, Rogan once again invited controversial academic Jordan Peterson onto his show – causing more controversy. By 28th January, #DeleteSpotify was trending on Twitter. Music Ally's Editor Joe Sparrow talks to Head of Insight Stuart Dredge to try and get some answers: how big a deal is this for Spotify, could #DeleteSpotify gain momentum and become a much bigger problem for the company – and will Spotify tell Joe Rogan to stop discussing certain topics on his show?

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