Joe Rogan: Spotify CEO condemns podcaster’s use of racial slurs, but says company won’t be ‘silencing’ him

Rogan, who vowed last week to do better when discussing matters related to the pandemic, apologized Saturday morning after a video compilation of him using the n-word was widely shared on social media.

In his note to staff Sunday night, which Spotify provided to CNN Business, Ek said that he would be committing “an incremental investment of $100 million for the licensing, development, and marketing of music (artists and songwriters) and audio content from historically marginalized groups.”

It’s unclear, however, whether such action will quell the controversy related to Rogan. Critics have called for far harsher measures, with many calling for the company to fire Rogan.

Ek said Sunday night that Rogan’s comments “do not represent the values of this company” and that Spotify had engaged in “conversations with Joe and his team about some of the content in his show, including his history of using some racially insensitive language.”

“Following these discussions and his own reflections, he chose to remove a number of episodes from Spotify,” Ek said.

More than 100 episodes of Rogan’s program had been scrubbed from the podcaster’s library, according to JRE Missing, a website that tracks the show.

Ek apologized to staff for how the controversy “continues to impact” each of them.

“I deeply regret that you are carrying so much of this burden,” Ek said. “I also want to be transparent in setting the expectation that in order to achieve our goal of becoming the global audio platform, these kinds of disputes will be inevitable.”

The Spotify chief executive said that balancing “creator expression with user safety” is something he has been thinking about and that he had asked teams to “expand the number of outside experts” they consult with on such efforts.

Ek and Spotify have been trying, unsuccessfully, to put an end to controversy related to Rogan’s podcast for weeks.