Spotify: Celebs Rumors

Kendrick Lamar performed a short set during a Spotify event in Cannes last night (June 20) – you can watch footage of his live performance below.The Compton rapper played live at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès yesterday as part of Cannes Lions Festival – six days before he is due to headline the Pyramid Stage on the final night of Glastonbury 2022.Lamar, who recently released his long-awaited fifth studio album ‘Mr.

Kantar found a drop in the total individuals with access to at least one music subscription, now at 39.5 per cent, down from 43.6 per cent at the start of 2020.That includes 600,000 fewer under 35s who have access to a music subscription compared to the previous year, with students who have access dropping from 67 per cent to 59 per cent.

The Los Angeles Times. The digital disappearance was uncovered revealed by JRE Missing, an automated watchdog that keeps tabs on episodes.Per the site, the glitch affected a whopping 36 episodes, which were reportedly recorded before the podcast purveyor acquired the show — including its catalog of past episodes — in 2020 for $200 million.Naturally, the phenomenon might seem suspect given Spotify’s history of surreptitiously deleting “JRE” episodes over controversial content.However, the latest batch seemed to have been Houdini’d at random as they featured a grab-bag of guests, including Republican Texas Rep.

Spotify took its first step into the metaverse by partnering with Roblox to create the company’s first island and yesterday (May 24) it unveiled K-Park, a “homage to all things k-pop”.An off-shoot of Spotify Island, the limited-time world will allow fans to interact with Stray Kids and Sunmi through signed digital merch and virtual meet and greets.

Spotify for the first time in over two years, the streaming service has confirmed.In early 2020, Spotify announced that it was pausing all political ad sales in the US ahead of the 2020 presidential election between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, saying in a statement that the advertisements were too hard to “validate and review.”Now, as reported by Protocol, Spotify has said that ads of this nature are slowly set to return to the service.“Following our pause of political ads in early 2020, we have spent the past two years strengthening and enhancing our processes, systems and tools to responsibly validate and review this content,” Spotify said in a statement.“We are now beginning to sell select political advertisements in opted-in third-party podcasts via the Spotify Audience Network in the U.S.”According to Pitchfork, political ads will not play between songs for users on Spotify’s free tier, and that the service will only work with known candidates.“At this point in time, we do not yet have the necessary level of robustness in our process, systems and tools to responsibly validate and review this content,” Spotify said in a statement to Ad Age at the time of removing political ads at the start of 2020.

The Hu have today (May 13) shared their thunderous new single, ‘This Is Mongol’ – check it out below.The track is another preview of their upcoming second studio album, which is set for release later this year via Better Noise Music.A statement said of the track: “As with all of their music, The HU connects the world to Mongolian culture and its unique core values of natural preservation and spiritual connection with the earth. These core values are on full display in the new, epic official video for ‘This is Mongol’.”Check out the song and video here:Speaking about the video, singer and tumur hhuur player Jaya from the band said: “We shot in the Mojave Desert, Nevada and the environment reminded us of the Gobi Desert in Mongolia.

cancel Joe Rogan have apparently only had the opposite effect: The “Joe Rogan Experience” host claims that he’s amassed millions of Spotify subscribers amid ongoing uproar over past episodes, in which he’d featured alleged anti-vaxxer guests and dropped the “N-Bomb.”Rogan, 54, dropped the bombshell about his alleged influx of subscribers on Friday’s episode with British pundit commentator Douglas Murray.“You have been put through the wringer since we last met,” exclaimed Murray, referring to the “Fear Factor” host being in the social media skillet. “They did a number on you.

Barack Obama and Michelle Obama are ending their exclusive podcast deal with Spotify.According to Bloomberg, Barack and Michelle’s media company Higher Ground could not come to an agreement with the popular streaming service, stating that they wanted their content to reach a larger audience. The former First couple’s production company signed a three-year agreement with Spotify in 2019, and due to the terms of the deal, their projects were unable to reach an audience wide enough for the Obamas’ satisfaction.After Higher Ground’s deal with Spotify ends in October, the company will not renew its contract, Bloomberg reported.

Bring Me The Horizon‘s landmark 2013 album ‘Sempiternal’ has surpassed one billion streams on Spotify.The Sheffield band’s fourth album, the follow-up to 2010’s ‘There Is A Hell Believe Me I’ve Seen It. There Is A Heaven Let’s Keep It A Secret’ saw BMTH draft in Worship keyboardist Jordan Fish for the first time and add more electronics to their brand of alternative metal.Celebrating the milestone, BMTH took to Twitter to share a video of clips from the album.“NiNE yEArS oF SeMPiterNaL.

Spotify is facing renewed criticism from US Congress over its Discovery Mode feature, which allows artists to receive additional exposure for a reduced royalty rate.Three Congress members – Yvette D. Clarke, Judy Chu and Tony Cardenas, who represent the Congressional Caucus on Multicultural Media, have sent a letter to Spotify CEO Daniel Ek criticising the feature.In exchange for a boost in visibility, artists and their labels agree to receive a “promotional” royalty rate on those streams, believed to be lower than the standard rate through the feature, which was announced in November 2020.Highlighting this issue, the letter said via Variety: “Choosing to accept reduced royalty payments is a serious risk for musicians, who would only benefit if Discovery Mode yields more total streams for an artist across their entire catalogue, not just the track covered by the program.”“And if two competing artists both enroll their newest track in the program, any benefit could be cancelled out, meaning that the only profit goes to your company’s bottom line.

Harry Styles‘ new single ‘As It Was’ has broken a Spotify record on its first day of release.‘As It Was’ is the first taste of Styles’ forthcoming third studio album ‘Harry’s House’, which he announced last month with a teaser trailer. It’s set for release on May 20, and will follow on from 2019’s ‘Fine Line’.Yesterday (April 2), Spotify confirmed that the single had become the most-streamed song in the United States in a single day, beating a record that was formerly held by Olivia Rodrigo for her single ‘Drivers License’.According to Billboard, ‘As It Was’ had 8.3 million streams in a day, while ‘Drivers License’ previously held the record with 8 million streams.With 21.6 million streams, Styles’ new track is also the most-streamed song globally on Spotify in a single day for 2022 so far, topping Anitta‘s ‘Envolver’ which saw 8.6 million single-day streams in March.You know it's not the same As It Was.

Glass Animals have shared their cover of Lorde‘s single ‘Solar Power’ – you can listen to the band’s rendition of the 2021 track below.The cover is the latest to be recorded for an ongoing special edition of the Spotify Singles series, which is celebrating the Best New Artist category at this Sunday’s Grammys (April 3).Following on from recent covers in the series by Arlo Parks and Finneas, Glass Animals have now shared their take on Lorde’s ‘Solar Power’, which was the title track from the New Zealand artist’s third studio album.“I chose ‘Solar Power’ because in a time when we were all stuck indoors a bit, this song made me feel like I was on a beach…. we all needed a bit of that!” Glass Animals frontman Dave Bayley said in a statement about their choice of track.“It’s a stunning song, and then I just had a version of it in my head where it was faster with a gospel choir behind it….

Spotify if his podcast becomes censored to the point at which he has to “walk on eggshells” and mind his “Ps and Qs”.The host of The Joe Rogan Experience, which is Spotify’s biggest podcast, said in a recent episode that he’ll back out of his reported $200million, three-and-a-half-year exclusivity deal he agreed with the platform in 2020 should it decide to bow to external criticism.Rogan became embroiled in controversy recently after Neil Young demanded his music be removed from Spotify if the platform wasn’t willing to remove podcast episodes in which Rogan had broadcasted dangerous misinformation over the COVID vaccines.During a recent episode, Rogan, an ex-mixed martial arts commentator and TV host, got into a conversation with MMA fighter Josh Barnett about the podcast industry.“I will quit. If it gets to a point that I can’t do it anymore, where I have to do it in some sort of weird way where I walk on eggshells and mind my p’s and q’s, fuck that!” Rogan said, which you can see in a clip above.He alluded to other controversies, which include his past use of racial slurs that recently came into the spotlight, saying that he worries about “every little thing” being picked on.“There’s more people poring over it but it’s the same thing.

again.The hugely popular, and hugely controversial, podcast host is threatening to quit the music streaming giant, leaving their $200 million deal on the table. During a recent episode of “The Joe Rogan Podcast,” the former mixed martial arts commentator got into a conversation with MMA fighter Josh Barnett about the cutthroat podcast industry ring.“I will quit.

Arlo Parks has shared her cover of Kaytranada‘s ‘You’re The One’ – you can hear her rendition below.The cover has been recorded for a special edition of the Spotify Singles series which is celebrating the Best New Artist category at this year’s Grammys, which will take place on Sunday (April 3).Parks has been nominated in the category, one of two nods for the London singer/songwriter at this year’s ceremony (she’s also up for Best Alternative Music Album for her debut LP ‘Collapsed In Sunbeams’), along with the likes of Glass Animals, Baby Keem and Finneas.As well as her rendition of Kaytranada’s ‘You’re The One’ – originally a collaboration with Syd which featured on the producer’s 2016 album ‘99.9%’ – Parks has also shared a new version of her most recent single ‘Softly’. Both tracks, which you can hear below, were recorded at Electric Lady Studios in New York City.“Why it was such a joy to record my Spotify Singles session in the studio, I felt somehow part of the legend,” Parks said in a statement about the songs.“Syd’s voice in ‘You’re the One’ always had this effortless beauty to it in my eyes and I wanted to cover it to expose the romance and yearning behind the lyrics.

Spotify are reportedly set to suspend its service in Russia in response to the country’s newly announced media law.According to Reuters, the streaming platform, which closed its office in Russia indefinitely earlier this month due to Moscow’s “unprovoked attack on Ukraine”, is expected to cease in the country late next month.It comes after Russia introduced a new legislation that makes it illegal to report any event that could discredit the Russian military.“Spotify has continued to believe that it’s critically important to try to keep our service operational in Russia to provide trusted, independent news and information from the region,” the company said in a statement.“Unfortunately, recently enacted legislation further restricting access to information, eliminating free expression, and criminalizing certain types of news puts the safety of Spotify’s employees and the possibility of even our listeners at risk.”Ukraine has been under attack since February 24, when Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a military operation in the neighbouring country.

Finneas has shared his first music of 2022 with new single ‘Naked’, which sees him bust some impressive dance moves – you can view the video below.The track is the first from Billie Eilish‘s brother and collaborator since his debut album ‘Optimist’ was released last October.The song focuses on a break up as he sings: “Ended back in early ’18/ We didn’t want the same thing / I don’t like the taste of cigarettes or your complaining,” before he admits: “I can’t believe you’ve seen me naked.”It follows his recent cover of Bon Iver‘s 2008 track ‘Flume’ for Spotify Singles and the three songs he wrote with Eilish for Disney‘s soundtrack to their new film Turning Red.Reviewing Finneas’ debut solo album ‘Optimist’ upon its release last year, NME said: “He made his name producing and writing for his megastar sister Billie Eilish, and now it’s Finneas’ turn to step into the spotlight. ‘Optimist’ has been a long time coming – it follows a whopping 23 singles released since 2016 – and fully justifies why he’s become the industry’s producer du jour.“The record takes two paths to do that – classic, timeless pop songwriting and something more modern and cutting-edge.

Spotify has revealed that it paid $7billion (£5.3billion) to artists last year.The news was published via its Loud And Clear website, which aims to “increase transparency” around payments.The streaming giant said that 56,200 musicians received more than $10,000 (£7,500) from Spotify last year and 130 of these were paid more than $5m (£3.8m).However, the figures shared don’t include the final figure the artist receives once labels and publishers have taken their share, which means the money they receive is often much lower. Songwriters and session musicians receive even less.The service has come under fire previously for its low artist payments, with the likes of David Byrne, producer Tony Visconti and David Crosby all criticising the platform recently.Visconti described the streaming service as “disgusting” over its low payments to artists.

Spotify‘s huge new sponsorship deal with FC Barcelona, saying the cash could have helped hundreds of struggling music venues instead.After significant rumours, today (March 16) it was confirmed that the streaming service have confirmed a groundbreaking sponsorship deal with the world famous Spanish club, which will see Spotify’s logo appear on match and training kits, and the club’s stadium renamed the Spotify Nou Camp.A statement described the deal as a “first-of-its-kind partnership for the club in bringing the worlds of music and football together” and is set to “see the pair working together to create opportunities for the iconic shirt to become a space that can celebrate artists from across the world”.In a series of tweets responding to the news, the MVT said: “For the amount of money Spotify have agreed to spend on TEMPORARILY branding FC Barcelona they could, instead, have secured a PERMANENT future for circa 700 UK Grassroots Music Venues.For the amount of money Spotify have agreed to spend on TEMPORARILY branding FC Barcelona they could, instead, have secured a PERMANENT future for circa 700 UK Grassroots Music Venues.— Music Venue Trust (@musicvenuetrust) March 16, 2022“Such an investment could have unleashed £40 million per annum into grassroots artist talent development, from which Spotify, [Universal, Sony, Warner] and others are the ultimate financial beneficiaries.”They added: “Not only that, but an investment of money in this way would generate a reasonable financial return, being invested into bricks and mortar and therefore remaining an asset.

Spotify have confirmed a groundbreaking sponsorship deal with the world famous FC Barcelona.Last month, it was announced that the club and streaming service were close to a deal worth £237million after the football club announced back in September that it has debts of more than £1billion.From the start of next season, which begins at the end of this summer, the club’s famous stadium will be renamed the Spotify Nou Camp – the first time it has ever bore a sponsor’s name – while the team’s match and training kit will also be sponsored by Spotify.It will be the first time the stadium has carried a sponsor’s name – and is a historic moment for a club that refused any shirt sponsor until 2006.A statement described the deal as a “first-of-its-kind partnership for the club in bringing the worlds of music and football together” and is set to “see the pair working together to create opportunities for the iconic shirt to become a space that can celebrate artists from across the world”.We’re partnering with @Spotify to bring football and music together like you’ve never seen before

David Byrne says he believes that Spotify is “making artists uncomfortable” around the scandal relating to COVID misinformation shared on Joe Rogan’s podcast.Earlier this year, Rogan and Spotify were heavily criticised for sharing misinformation about the coronavirus vaccine on the exclusive podcast The Joe Rogan Experience, which led to artists including Neil Young and Joni Mitchell removing their music from the service.Byrne, who in 2013 publicly criticised the “pittance” artists are paid in terms of royalties from streaming services like Spotify, and claimed he had pulled as much of his catalogue as possible from the service, was asked his thoughts on the ongoing scandal in a new interview with the Guardian.“There’s been all these things about platforms having … let’s say questionable or controversial content [and] putting out misinformation or outright lies or … not exactly hate speech, but things that are making a lot of artists uncomfortable,” he said.“And it’s pretty tough to do anything to help ameliorate that unless you’re a Drake or Taylor Swift, or those kinds of artists. It’s pretty hard for the rest of us to have influence.”Byrne added: “A handful of mega, mega artists are doing really well, and many of the others – especially emerging artists – are having a tough time with it.

Spotify has shuttered its Moscow office in response to Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.Confirming its Moscow office would be closed “indefinitely”, the streaming platform said they were “providing individual support to our personnel” in Moscow, as well as their “global community of Ukrainian employees”.The new measures have come into place as sanctions have made processing payments in the country impossible.“Due to new restrictions introduced by major payment providers, payment processing is not currently possible for the majority of Premium users in Russia,” a Spotify spokesman told AFP (via Geo News).They added that paid premium accounts “will be cancelled if a recurring payment fails and the account will then be automatically moved to our free service”. The company said it had also “paused all advertising campaigns running in Russia.”In addition to restricting the discoverability of Russian state-affiliated media, the platform previously removed all content from Kremlin-backed outlets RT and Sputnik that was hosted on Spotify in the European Union and other markets.Spotify has stopped short of shutting off access for their Russian users, saying they believe it’s “critically important to try to keep our service operational in Russia to allow for the global flow of information”.

Finneas has shared a cover of Bon Iver‘s 2008 track ‘Flume’ for Spotify Singles – check it out below.Billie Eilish‘s brother and collaborator released his debut album ‘Optimist’ last October, and the new two-track live release also features a special version of the album track ‘Medieval’ alongside the Bon Iver cover.In a statement, Finneas said he was “honoured to finally be able to get into the brand new and beautiful Spotify Studios to record these songs in these special arrangements”.Listen to Finneas cover Bon Iver’s ‘Flume’ and play ‘Medieval’ for Spotify Singles below.Reviewing Finneas’ debut solo album ‘Optimist’ upon its release last year, NME said: “He made his name producing and writing for his megastar sister Billie Eilish, and now it’s Finneas’ turn to step into the spotlight. ‘Optimist’ has been a long time coming – it follows a whopping 23 singles released since 2016 – and fully justifies why he’s become the industry’s producer du jour.“The record takes two paths to do that – classic, timeless pop songwriting and something more modern and cutting-edge.

Freddie Gibbs has said that he doesn’t think Joe Rogan is a racist despite the podcaster using the N-word dozens of times in previous episodes.The rapper appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience on Tuesday (March 1) and made it clear that, while white people shouldn’t use the word and Rogan was wrong to have done so, he doesn’t believe that the broadcaster is in fact racist.“You can’t say that shit, Joe,” Gibbs told Rogan during the episode. “’Cause you pissed n****s off when you did that compilation. It was funny as fuck, though.

Spotify has shuttered its Moscow office in response to Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, and will restrict the discoverability of content owned and operated by Russian state-affiliated media.“We are deeply shocked and saddened by the unprovoked attack on Ukraine,” a Spotify spokesperson said in a statement.“Our first priority over the past week has been the safety of our employees and to ensure that Spotify continues to serve as an important source of global and regional news at a time when access to information is more important than ever.”Confirming its Moscow office would be closed “indefinitely”, the streaming platform said they were “providing individual support to our personnel” in Moscow, as well as their “global community of Ukrainian employees”.In addition to restricting the discoverability of Russian state-affiliated media, the platform has also removed all content from Kremlin-backed outlets RT and Sputnik that was hosted on Spotify in the European Union and other markets. Additionally, it has launched a guide on the platform that directs users to localised “trusted news” sources.Spotify has stopped short of shutting off access for their Russian users, however, saying they believe it’s “critically important to try to keep our service operational in Russia to allow for the global flow of information”.“We are exploring additional steps that we can take and will continue to do what is in the best interest of our employees and our listeners,” the statement concluded.Ukraine has been under attack since last Thursday (February 24), when Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a military operation in the neighbouring country.

Tony Visconti has shared his views on Spotify, criticising the streaming service as “disgusting” over its low payments to artists.Visconti, best known for his lifelong work with David Bowie, was asked by The Independent about a tweet in January in which he asked followers to help him delete his Spotify account.It came during backlash around podcaster Joe Rogan, whose show on the platform was criticised for sharing misinformation about the coronavirus vaccine, and which led to artists including Neil Young and Joni Mitchell removing their music.Visconti clarified that he did not eventually delete his account. “I thought about it, but I use Spotify as a tool,” he said.

David Crosby has offered young creatives a stark message, saying “don’t become a musician”.In a new interview with Stereogum, Crosby was asked what message he would give to new musical creatives. He replied: “Don’t become a musician.”The reason he gave was largely due to streaming royalties.He continued: “I don’t like Spotify. I don’t like any of the streamers, because they don’t pay us properly.

Spotify has agreed to change its rules on playlists following the release of a 1000-track protest album by cult indie band The Pocket Gods, which railed against the streaming platform’s payment rates.Spotify has been accused of paying artists as little as £0.002 for each stream on its service, with royalties only being activated if a song is listened to for at least 30 seconds.A 2015 i article on the economics of streaming then influenced The Pocket Gods to release ‘1000×30 – Nobody Makes Money Anymore’ on Spotify on February 8, with each of the record’s 1000 tracks clocking in at around the 30-second mark.“I saw the [2015] article and it made me think, ‘Why write longer songs when we get paid little enough for just 30 seconds?’” frontman Mark Christopher Lee told i earlier this month.The stunt by the St Albans band, which has seen their protest album clock up nearly 600,000 total streams, has now drawn a response from Spotify, with founder Daniel Ek reportedly reaching out to Lee to set up a meeting between The Pocket Gods and Spotify’s head of artist relations.“Spotify said we’re ahead of the curve as shorter songs are the future – just look at TikTok,” Lee told i in a new interview. “They said that I can pitch 30 second tracks to their playlists [drivers of chart hits] for consideration – I wasn’t able to do this previously as the songs were considered too short.“So next week I’m releasing a 30-second single called ‘Noel Gallagher Is Jealous Of My Studio’.”Lee added that he was told that pay rates to songwriters would increase when Spotify rolls out an increase in its subscription price, which is currently priced at £9.99 for premium users.

Spotify podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience.Earlier this month, India.Arie shared a compilation of clips that featured Rogan using the N-word repeatedly and describing a Black neighbourhood as being similar to the Planet Of The Apes movie.Rogan has since apologised, telling his Instagram followers. “There’s been a lot of shit from the old episodes of the podcast that I wish I hadn’t said, or had said differently.

Coldplay have shared an expansive cover of Kid Cudi‘s 2008 hit ‘Day ‘n’ Nite’ – check out their version below.The cover arrives for a new Spotify Singles release, which also features a new version of ‘Let Somebody Go’, their recent collaboration with Selena Gomez.“‘Day ‘n’ Nite’ I loved when it came out, and I still love love love it,” frontman Chris Martin said of the band’s decision to cover the track, which they turn into a stadium-ready song full of pulsating synths.“Martin added: This is the first time I think that we’ve really taken proper time to record a cover, because in my head I could hear a version of it quite different from the original, that hopefully just reinforces what a brilliant song it is. One way or another I hope that anyone listening will just think, ‘Wow, Kid Cudi is amazing.’”Of ‘Let Somebody Go’, Martin added: “I have always loved Selena’s voice and when ‘Let Somebody Go’ arrived it felt like she was the only person to sing it with.“I’m so happy she said yes.

David Crosby has called Joe Rogan “not real impressive” amid detailing in a new interview his reasons for pulling all his music off of Spotify.Earlier this month, the member of the disbanded folk supergroup Crosby, Stills & Nash (which when completed by Neil Young were known as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young) joined his former bandmates in support of Young’s demand that his music be erased from Spotify.Young took particular aim at controversial podcaster Joe Rogan – a prominent skeptic of the COVID vaccine who has a $100million exclusivity contract with Spotify – pointing out widespread misinformation shared through his podcast The Joe Rogan Experience.“We support Neil and we agree with him that there is dangerous disinformation being aired on Spotify’s Joe Rogan podcast,” Crosby, who also performs solo, said along with the group in a joint statement via his social media.pic.twitter.com/yyhHTQi7fm— David Crosby (@thedavidcrosby) February 2, 2022Now, in an interview with Stereogum, Crosby has expanded on his decision to shun Spotify and remove his music from the platform. He also made it clear that he takes issue with all streaming services – not just Spotify, with which Rogan has the lucrative content deal.“Here’s how I feel about it.

YouTube channel has 5.4 million subscribers, and his new podcast, Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories, has skyrocketed to the number one spot on Spotify’s true crime podcast chart. In doing so, it surpassed established hits like Crime Junkie and Murder, Mystery & Makeup. Allen, 33, was raised outside of Boston in Quincy, Massachusetts.

will only be available through his own music player.The “All the Lights” rapper shared in an Instagram post Saturday his purported sales since revealing a day earlier that he would release the record only with the purchase of his $200 “Stem Player.” “We’ve made $2,227,012.05 in 24 hours,” West wrote. “God is good Thank you guys for taking this journey.”His Stem Player lets users “customize any song,” according to its sale page.West announced this week that he was shunning services like Spotify, Amazon, Youtube, and Apple for being unfair to artists.A post shared by ye (@kanyewest)“It’s time to free music from this oppressive system.

Joe Rogan has taken flak for hosting guests with sometimes-controversial opinions on vaccines and political issues, but a Spotify spokesperson said it was simply a technical malfunction.“It’s a technical issue affecting a number of our shows and should be resolved soon,” the spokesperson told The Post.The podcast appeared to be inaccessible for about 20 minutes.Neil Young recently pulled his music off of Spotify in protest of Rogan. Spotify paid Joe Rogan at least $200 million to exclusively host his podcast, according to the New York Times.

Spotify may have paid at least $200million for the exclusive rights to Joe Rogan’s podcast, double the figure that was previously reported.The streaming giant secured an exclusive license to host The Joe Rogan Experience in May 2020, when it was widely reported the controversial podcast host had been paid over $100million as part of the deal.However, “two people familiar with the details of the transaction” have since claimed to The New York Times that the three-and-a-half-year deal was actually worth twice what was initially believed: at least $200million. Spotify has yet to publicly comment on this report.The Times points out Spotify had previously purchased whole content companies – podcast network Gimlet Media and digital media brand The Ringer – both for slightly less than $200million each.In recent weeks, Spotify has come under fire for hosting The Joe Rogan Experience, its biggest podcast in the US and many other countries, with an estimated per-episode listenership of around 11million people.Last month, Neil Young requested the platform pull his catalogue, citing “false information about vaccines” being spread on the platform and specifically targeting Rogan’s podcast.

India.Arie has clarified her reasons for leaving Spotify, after she became one of many artists to boycott the service in recent weeks.When she first pulled her music from the service earlier this month, Arie cited their exclusive hosting of Joe Rogan’s podcast and his “language around race” as the reason she left Spotify.“Neil Young opened a door that I must walkthrough,” she wrote on Instagram, explaining how was following on from Neil Young’s exit from Spotify due to Rogan spreading “misinformation” about COVID-19 on his podcast.“I believe in freedom of speech. However, I find Joe Rogan problematic for reasons other than his COVID interviews,” she said at the time.Now, in a new interview with Trevor Noah on The Daily Show, Arie has discussed how Spotify’s royalties scheme and business practices also influenced her decision.Asked if Rogan was her enemy by Noah, Arie said: “My conversation has been about Spotify and its treatment of artists.“I have to say that asking for my music to be pulled from Spotify in protest doesn’t actually serve me,” she added, “but I did it in protest just because I felt like my dignity was being … I felt like I was being disrespected.”Discussing royalty payments artists get from Spotify, Arie explained: “What happens is, they say, ‘Well, this is just how it is; this is just what you get paid.