India Arie Is Pulling Her Music From Spotify Over Joe Rogan’s Podcast: ‘I Wonder Who Else Is Tired’

Arie called out the service for what she said was the underpaying of musicians in lieu of a major payday for Rogan.
India Arie is the latest artist to pull their music off Spotify in response to the COVID-19 misinformation and racially charged rhetoric on the streaming service’s most popular and divisive show, The Joe Rogan Experience.
“I have decided to pull my music and podcast off Spotify,” the singer wrote on Instagram on Monday night (Jan. 31).
“Neil Young opened a door that I MUST walk through,” she added, giving the rock icon credit for calling out Spotify and demanding that his music be taken off the service due to his dissatisfaction with how Spotify is dealing with Rogan’s frequent promotion of false COVID-19 information.
“I believe in freedom of speech. However, I find Joe Rogan problematic for reasons OTHER than his COVID interviews,” Arie noted, saying that for her, “ITS ALSO HIS language around race. What I am talking about is RESPECT — who gets it and who doesn’t.” The singer then went on to also take issue with how much the company pays musicians versus controversial podcasters.
“Paying musicians a Fraction of a penny? and HIM $100M?” she said of the reported figure Rogan got from Spotify for his podcast. “This shows the type of company they are and the company that they keep. I’m tired.” In a comment on the post, she added, “I wonder who else is tired.”
At press time it appeared Arie’s music was still available on Spotify. A spokesperson for Spotify has not yet returned requests for comment on Arie’s post.
Rogan hosted Canadian psychologist and conservative YouTube personality Jordan Peterson last week for a four-hour chat in which CNN reported Peterson made false and generalized claims about the models scientists use to project climate change, which the Advocate said also contained hateful and false anti-trans rhetoric.
But what Arie appeared to also be commenting on was the sight of the two privileged white men talking about race while joking about skin tone, including Rogan’s description of “Black” as “someone who is 100% African from the darkest place where they’re not wearing any clothes all day and they’ve developed all that melanin to protect them from the sun.” Just before that, Peterson clarified his racial background, while passing judgment on Black academic Michael Eric Dyson’s skin color.
“I am white — actually that’s a lie too,” said Peterson. “I am kind of tan. And he was actually not Black, he was sort of brown.”
Rogan offered up a mea culpa following the request from Young, which was followed by a takedown ask from Young’s friend and fellow Canadian Joni Mitchell — as well as one from Bruce Springsteen guitarist Nils Lofgren — acknowledging some of his show’s shortcomings and admitting that he has failed to counterbalance guests with fringe ideas with scientific experts.
“I don’t always get it right,” Rogan said. “I will do my best to try to balance out these more controversial viewpoints with other people perspectives so we can maybe find a better point of view.” As the backlash has continued to build, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek revealed updated platform rules and a new approach to dealing with COVID-19 information, including adding a dedicated content advisory to podcast episodes that contain discussions about the virus.
“We have had rules in place for many years but admittedly, we haven’t been transparent around the policies that guide our content more broadly,” said Ek in a corporate statement issued Jan. 30. “This, in turn, led to questions around their application to serious issues including COVID-19.”
See Arie’s post below.