Photo Credit: Joe Rogan / YouTubeRumble has offered Joe Rogan $100 million to leave Spotify for its platform. Here’s the letter.
Chris Pavlovski, the CEO of the Candian video platform, posted the open letter on Twitter. “We stand with you, your guests, and your legion of fans in a desire for real conversation. How about you bring all your shows to Rumble, both new and old, with no censorship, for $100 million bucks over four years?” the letter reads. “This is our chance to save the world. And yes, this is totally legit.”
Rumble launched in 2013 as an alternative to YouTube and hosts several right-wing personalities. Dinesh D’Souza and Steve Bannon regularly create content for the video site. Rumble also struck a deal with Truth Social, the social media app former President Trump is launching. So far, Rogan has not made any comment on the deal.
Over the weekend, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said he does not believe that silencing Joe Rogan is the answer. “We should have clear lines around content and take action when they are crossed, but canceling voices is a slippery slope,” Ek’s letter to Spotify staffers reads. Spotify’s stock has been sliding for months, even before the Rogan debate kicked off.
The Hollywood Reporter notes that Spotify’s stock closed at $161 on May 18, 2020. That’s the day before Spotify’s deal with Joe Rogan was announced. After the deal, the stock sky-rocketed up to $364 by February 2021. But those post-Rogan gains have disappeared nearly two years on. The stock is now trading around the $170 level and continues to slide as Spotify’s user growth slows.
The brouhaha surrounding Joe Rogan and artists pulling their music may only be heating up, too. Neil Young cited Rogan’s misinformation surrounding the COVID-19 vaccine as his primary reason for removing his music.
But India Arie highlighted Rogan’s previous comments about race as a reason she was pulling her music. Spotify recently removed 70 episodes of the JRE podcast (at Rogan’s request) following a super-cut video of him using the n-word. Rogan has apologized for using the word in any context since the video made its rounds on social media.
