Ouch! Someone is going to need their blankie tonight. Not podcaster Joe Rogan after he survived the left’s best attempts to cancel him—He’ll be sleeping with his big fat wallet. In a way, Rogan should thank the haters because they helped the already popular podcaster reach new heights.
Earlier this year liberals and politicians pressured Spotify to take down Rogan’s podcast after he spoke out for alternative treatments for COVID-19 and against vaccine mandates. Now that the numbers are in, Rogan and Spotify should take a huge victory lap around the cancel mob.
“Despite the backlash, Spotify saw its paid memberships increase, and the platform now has 182 million premium subscribers — up from 180 million in the previous quarter and 15% higher year over year,” CNN reported. “Total revenue was up 24% over last year.”
The company noted that had it not pulled out of Russia following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine that it would have done even better in terms of growth.
“Excluding the impact of our exit from Russia, subscriber growth exceeded expectations,” the company said.
They didn’t even scratch Rogan, if anything they helped build up his already enormous following:
“It’s interesting, but my subscriptions went up massively. That’s what’s crazy,” Rogan said earlier this month. “During the height of it all, I gained two million subscribers.”
At the start of 2022, Spotify doubled down in support of Rogan who regularly interviews fringe and far right figures on his show. That included Dr. Robert Malone, who claims to have invented the mRNA technology used to create COVID-19 vaccines, a claim widely refuted by the people who actually did. Malone’s episode prompted a complaint from 270 healthcare professionals asking for Spotify to do more to combat vaccine misinformation, according to Engaget.
That was followed by artists like Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, who withdrew their music from the service, and Brené Brown who paused her podcast, in protest.
Leave a Comment