Is Joe Rogan too big to be canceled?
Rock legend Neil Young has ripped off most of his songs from Spotify. The reason is his protest against the Spotify podcaster Joe Rogan – Rogan and his guests are said to have spread dubious to incorrect information about Corona. In the “media week” we discuss the case.
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Canadian rock legend Neil Young is no flyweight in the music business. But now he has lost out in a showdown. Against comedian Joe Rogan, who makes one of the most successful podcasts ever, the “Joe Rogan Experience”, which can be heard on Spotify. Young refers to dubious to false claims about corona and vaccinations that both Rogan and his guests made in the podcast.
In this matter, 270 doctors wrote an open letter to the streaming service at the beginning of January. Neil Young, who has completely withdrawn due to the pandemic and does not give any concerts, has now demanded that Spotify give Rogan the pass – or he will withdraw his songs. Spotify reportedly paid $100 million for the podcast license. Which could explain why even a Neil Young can’t get through such demands. As of last Thursday, Young’s almost entire discography was no longer available. As a result, the musician Joni Mitchell also declared that she would withdraw her music from Spotify.
In this issue of Media Week we talk about the Neil Young vs. Joe Rogan case. The podcaster, the “New York Times” recently wrote, is “too big to cancel”; too big to be cleared. Spotify boss Daniel Ek had already said about the Rogan case that the man would not be censored. Just as little as taking responsibility for the texts of “very well paid rappers”. But are rap songs comparable to podcasts? And what does the conflict mean for Spotify and other platforms?
We also talk about the federal government’s new vaccination campaign, which the media and experts unanimously judged to be unsuccessful to miserable. 60 million euros for posters in Sanifair colors? And who should actually feel persuaded to vaccinate? Finally, we take a look at a judgment of the Federal Court of Justice (BGH), which deals with the real name requirement on Facebook. Prominently ignored this time: the RTL “jungle camp”.
The “Media Week” is a podcast about the world of media and its makers. Christian Meier, editor at WELT, and Stefan Winterbauer, editor-in-chief of the industry service Meedia, talk about the most important topics of the week every Friday. Background, analytical, entertaining.
Feedback an: medien-woche@welt.de