Numbers of people visiting Spotify page to cancel membership soars by almost 200% in one week after music streaming service refused to cancel Joe Rogan

• Joe Rogan, who has a $100 million deal with Spotify, and attracts 11 million listeners to each episode of his podcast, is still battling a misinformation saga
• Rogan has since the beginning of this year been accused of spreading quack theories about COVID-19 and promoting dangerously misleading scientists
• Rogan insists that he is simply contributing to legitimate debate, but the saga has been damaging, with many musicians abandoning the platform
• On Tuesday CNN reported that traffic to Spotify’s Premium cancellation page – ending their $9.99 a month ad-free service – tripled in a week
• Spotify executives are standing by Rogan, but are likely to be bracing for even more cancellations after the broadcaster was found to have used racial slurs
• On Tuesday night Rogan was on stage in Texas and apologized for his previous language, but urged people not to take his advice on science 

Traffic to Spotify’s cancellation page nearly tripled in the last week of January as the audio platform struggled to deal with the controversy around its superstar podcaster Joe Rogan.

Rogan, whose podcast is the most listened to on the streaming service, drawing 11 million listeners per episode, sparked a firestorm of criticism for his controversial views on the COVID-19 vaccine.

The groundswell of criticism surged after he hosted two vaccine sceptic scientists in mid and late December, and a host of famous faces such as Neil Young and Joni Mitchell announced they were taking their music off the site in protest.

The analytics firm, SimilarWeb, told CNN on Tuesday night that it had seen traffic to the cancellation page spike 196 percent week-over-week in its most recent set of data.

The data looked at traffic on the week of January 17, and compared it to the week beginning January 24.

In the week of the 17th, 39,924 visits to the page were recorded. The following week, 118,168 visits – almost three times as many – were recorded.

‘This is a huge spike,’ said Seema Shah, who leads SimilarWeb’s research team, describing it as unprecedented.

‘It implies people were passionate about the issue and took immediate action. We’ll see if it keeps rising.’

Embattled Spotify podcaster Joe Rogan addressed his COVID misinformation controversy during a comedy set in Texas Tuesday, saying that listeners should take his words with a grain of salt because he ‘talks sh*t for a living’

Spotify’s monthly ad-free subscriptions range from $9.99 to $15.99 a month

Spotify signed a $100 million contract with Rogan to exclusively host his podcast

Spotify users pay $9.99 for a single Premium subscription, which plays music and podcasts without adverts, and $15.99 for a family subscription. It can also be accessed for free, but with ads and without the ability to store playlists you have made. 

Spotify executives will likely expect the cancellations to continue, amid fresh revelations of Rogan’s behavior.

On February 3, singer India Arie – who three days previously joined Neil Young and Joni Mitchell in removing their music from Spotify, in protest at Rogan’s spreading of false information about COVID – published to Instagram footage of Rogan using the n-word. 

In the highly-edited clip, excerpts of Rogan’s language from over the years was spliced together, providing a segment that Rogan himself said made him wince. 

Rogan, 54, also appeared to share an anecdote in which he compared being around black people to Planet of the Apes.

Rogan said the clips were taken out of context from 12 years of his podcast, but expressed regret and acknowledged it ‘looks f****** horrible, even to me.’

‘I haven’t said it in years,’ he said, in a video response on Instagram. 

‘But for a long time when I would bring that word up, like if it would come up in conversation, instead of saying ‘the N-word,’ I would just say the word. 

‘I thought as long as it was in context, people would understand what I was doing.’

He went on to say he realizes now that he shouldn’t use the word. 

‘I never used it to be racist because I’m not racist. But whenever you’re in a situation where you have to say, ‘I’m not racist,’ you’ve f***** up. And I clearly have f***** up.’

On Tuesday night, Rogan addressed the controversy sparked by Arie’s clip during a comedy set in Austin, Texas – his first since the scandal broke. 

Rogan is seen on December 7, before the scandal broke and threatened his podcast’s platform

India Arie shared resurfaced clips of Spotify’s premier podcaster Joe Rogan repeatedly using the N-word, after pulling her discography from the popular streaming platform

Joe Rogan posted a nearly six minute video to Instagram on Saturday in which he spoke about a video of him that contained resurfaced clips of him saying the N-word on his podcast

Music legends Neil Young and Joni Mitchell were among singers to have their music removed from Spotify in protest of comments made by Rogan on his show

‘I used to say it if [I was talking about] a Richard Pryor bit or something, I would say it in context,’ Rogan said. 

‘Somebody made a compilation of every time I said that word over 14 years and they put it on YouTube, and it turned out that was racist as f***. 

‘Even to me! I’m me and I’m watching it saying, ‘Stop saying it!’ I put my cursor over the video and I’m like, ‘Four more minutes?!’ 

‘I haven’t used that word in years. 

‘But it’s kind of weird people will get really mad if you use that word and tweet about it on a phone that’s made by slaves,’ he added, referencing Apple’s iPhones made by forced labor in China. 

Rogan also addressed the wider controversy about his podcast and COVID misinformation.  

‘I talk sh*t for a living – that’s why this is so baffling to me,’ Rogan said.

‘If you’re taking vaccine advice from me, is that really my fault?’

Rogan, who shot to fame hosting Fear Factor, added: ‘What dumb sh*t were you about to do when my stupid idea sounded better? ‘You know that dude who made people people eat animal d***s on TV? How does he feel about medicine?’

‘If you want my advice, don’t take my advice.’ 

Joe Rogan is pictured in undated photo with right-wing personality Alex Jones, who said he attend the podcaster’s standup set in Austin on Tuesday

NFL star Aaron Rodgers previously said that he sought advice from Rogan regarding his vaccine views after contracting COVID-19

Rogan – who is against mandatory vaccinations – in January said that ‘dozens’ of A-list celebrities had contacted him for COVID advice, including Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers and UFC President Dana White. 

‘It’s weird, I’ll get random messages from celebrities, mostly about COVID advice,’ he told fellow comedian Tim Dillon on Dillon’s podcast. 

‘No bulls***, I’ve helped dozens of people… like famous actors, musicians who have asked for COVID advice.’ 

Rogan revealed last year that he had not received the jab and rather opted for his doctor’s advice to take monoclonal antibodies and Ivermectin, among other drugs, to fight the infection – a stratagem that Rodgers picked up from the comedian. 

‘I’ve consulted with a now-good friend of mine, Joe Rogan, after he got COVID and I’ve been doing a lot of the stuff that he recommended in his podcasts and on the phone to me,’ Rodgers said in November, after contracting the virus. 

The quarterback faced backlash for lying to the media after telling them in the summer that he was ‘inoculated.’ 

Rogan’s comments Tuesday come after he told fellow comedian and podcaster Tim Dillon that ‘dozens’ of A-list celebrities have come to him seeking advice about COVID and vaccines

Spotify boss Daniel Ek is under increasing pressure to kick his $100 million star off the streaming service.

Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek wrote in a note to employees on Sunday that while he condemned podcaster Joe Rogan’s use of racist language, he did not believe that cutting ties with the popular personality was the answer. Ek’s message came a day after Rogan apologized for using racist slurs on his podcast and removed several episodes from Spotify

Spotify has removed a slew of episodes of Rogan’s podcast from their site, including the ones that contained the offensive language. 

Ek said in a message to employees on Sunday that Rogan’s racist language was ‘incredibly hurtful’ and that the host stood behind the removal of the dozens of episodes of his show, but reiterated that the company would not part ways with Rogan – their most popular podcaster.

The next day, Young slammed the CEO and urged the tech company’s employees to quit their jobs in protest against COVID-19 misinformation.

Rogan, who signed an $100million deal with Spotify in 2020, said Tuesday that he will stay with the streamer after multiple episodes of his show containing controversial content were removed from the service

‘I say Daniel Ek is your big problem – not Joe Rogan. 

‘Get out of that place before it eats up your soul,’ the singer wrote on Monday, in a statement posted to his website.

Young then urged artists to remove their content from the platform as he did in January, which spurred other artists like Joni Mitchell and David Crosby to follow suit.

‘The only goals stated by Ek are numbers, not art, not creativity,’ he wrote.

‘To the musicians and creators in the world I say this: You must be able to find a better place than Spotify to be the home of your art.’

On Tuesday, Rogan was asked during a Q&A portion if he would accept a $100-million offer from right-wing platform Rumble to move his show off Spotify. 

Rogan said he would stay with Spotify.

‘No, Spotify has hung in with me, inexplicably,’ he said. ‘Let’s see what happens.’ 

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