Spotify Removes Joe Rogan Episodes As User Confidence Wanes

With Joe Rogan’s podcast under the spotlight and user confidence waning, Spotify has removed more than 100 episodes from its platform, although none relating to COVID misinformation it seems.

As Variety reports, numerous episodes have been pulled due to language around race, apparently at the host's request following backlash. The current total, according to the JRE Missing site, is over 100, including episodes that featured Marc Maron, Amy Schumer, Kevin Smith, Bill Burr and more.

With more and more musicians removing their music from Spotify in the wake of Neil Young calling the streamer out for spreading misinformation via Rogan’s podcast, singer India Arie last week highlighted other problematic reasons for which she was having her songs pulled, including Rogan's use of the n-word on numerous occasions.

READ MORE: Neil Young Encourages Artists & Staff To Sever Ties With Spotify

Arie also shared a supercut of Rogan using the racial slur 24 times, to which he responded by posting an Instagram video explaining his actions while adding it's “the most regretful and shameful thing I’ve ever had to talk about publicly”.

The ongoing controversy surrounding the Joe Rogan Experience podcast has led to a drop in consumer confidence, with a recent poll revealing that 19% of Spotify users had either cancelled or planned to cancel their service over the COVID misinformation fallout.

Young and Joni Mitchell were the first artists to have their music removed from Spotify following the platform not removing deadly vaccine misinformation via Rogan’s podcast.

Young's actions followed an open letter from hundreds of medical professionals, urging Spotify to remove the content from its website, specifically a podcast episode with Dr. Robert Malone, where the guest made a series of widely disputed claims about the COVID-19 vaccine.

In response, Spotify founder and current CEO Daniel Ek published an open letter, hinting at changes to their content policy, but not mentioning any plans to remove the controversial episode.

Young’s former bandmates, David Crosby, Graham Nash and Stephen Stills, are also among those who have pulled their music.