Controversial podcaster Joe Rogan is being offered a staggering deal to jump ship and abandon Spotify. In an open letter addressed to the podcaster, the CEO of Rumble offered Rogan $100 million to bring his popular podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, to the anti-cancel culture social media platform.
Chris Pavlovski. The CEO f the Canadian video-sharing platform that bills itself as “neutral” and “immune to cancel culture,” posted the open letter to Twitter on Monday.
"We stand with you, your guests, and your legion of fans in desire for real conversation," Pavlovski wrote.
"So we'd like to offer you 100 million reasons to make the world a better place. How about you bring all your shows to Rumble, both old and new, with no censorship, for 100 million bucks over four years?" he added.
While at first, the offer might seem like a publicity stunt for the platform, Pavlovski assured Rogan in the note that the offer was real.
"This is our chance to save the world. And yes, this is totally legit," Pavlovski said.
The deal offered by Rumble is similar to the one signed by Rogan in 2020 which made his podcast a Spotify exclusive. The Joe Rogan Experience is the most-watched podcast on the platform with 11 million people regularly tuning in. The podcast has a bigger audience than the highest-rated programs on more mainstream media outlets like Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC.
Rogan has recently come under fire for spreading COVID-19 vaccine misinformation and using racial slurs. Spotify CEO Daniel Ek apologized to staffers in a memo and condemned Rogan’s remarks but said that “canceling voices is a slippery slope.”
The backlash has led to a slew of artists pulling their music from Spotify, including Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Nils Lofgren, Graham Nash, India Arie, David Crosby, and Stephen Stills.
Ek said that he spoke to Rogan and his team about his “history of using some racially insensitive language," and that Rogan decided to remove over 100 past episodes from the streaming platform. Ek has steadfastly argued that silencing Rogan isn’t the correct answer to the backlash, saying that one of the company’s core values is having an open platform.
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