For Spotify, ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ is an Object Lesson In Fumbling Crisis Communications

Thom Fladung, Hennes Communications

Spotify, the streaming service that provides music and podcasts to hundreds of millions of users, has lately been providing a different service: A guide to mishandling a reputational crisis.

For almost a month now, Spotify has lurched from one thorny situation to another centered on the popular “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast, seemingly helpless to stop the flow of bad news while the media writes exclusives, social media feasts and the world watches.

Along the way, numerous fundamental principles of effective crisis communications have been ignored or violated. Let us count the ways.

The never-ending crisis

The goal for any organization suddenly facing a reputational crisis should be to limit the damage – to make the ugly issue a one-day or two-day story. The organization’s best weapon, always, is the truth. Tell the truth about your situation and tell it as fast and as completely as possible.

And your truth must start with action. You can’t communicate your way out of a crisis. You must act your way out by trying to do the right thing. But you then must also communicate those actions – first to the people who matter most to you. That most often includes your employees, customers, business partners. Then, as quickly as possible, also tell the people outside that circle – who are going to find out anyway, via employee leak, news media or social media.

Or wait for new pieces of bad news to drip, drip, drip out one headline at a time.  Here’s a timeline of Spotify’s crisis.

• Jan. 14: As the New York Times reported, hundreds of scientists, professors, doctors, nurses and other public health professionals urge Spotify to crack down on misinformation about COVID-19 shared via its star podcaster Joe Rogan and his “concerning history” of advancing inaccurate claims about the pandemic on his podcast. Spotify has no comment.
• Jan. 24: Rock legend Neil Young tersely posts a short letter on his website that demands his music be removed from Spotify, according to Rolling Stone, because of Rogan’s dismissive stance on the coronavirus vaccine. “They can have Rogan or Young,” he writes. “Not both.” Young adds: “Lies being sold for money.” Spotify doesn’t respond to a request from Rolling Stone for comment.

• Jan. 26: Spotify says it has begun removing Young’s music. “We want all the world’s music and audio content to be available to Spotify users. With that comes great responsibility in balancing both safety for listeners and freedom for creators,” a Spotify spokesman tells The Washington Post in a statement. “We have detailed content policies in place and we’ve removed over 20,000 podcast episodes related to covid-19 since the start of the pandemic. We regret Neil’s decision to remove his music from Spotify, but hope to welcome him back soon.” One can imagine a sigh of relief in Spotify corner offices. Certainly now, they may have thought, it’s over.
• Jan. 31: Grammy winning singer-songwriter India Arie says in an Instagram post that she’s pulling her music from Spotify because Rogan’s “language around race” is “problematic,” pointing to a recent podcast in which Rogan made offensive comments about African nations and said it was “weird” to use the term “Black” as an identifier.
• Feb. 3: India Arie, again on Instagram, shares a compilation of clips of Rogan saying the N-word repeatedly. Suddenly and with no explanation, some 70 episodes of Rogan’s podcast disappear from Spotify. What’s going on? Spotify isn’t talking. As The Verge reports:  “A source close to the situation told Bloomberg that Rogan chose to remove these episodes after discussing it with Spotify, however, this still hasn’t been confirmed by the company. The Verge reached out to Spotify with a request for comment but didn’t immediately hear back.”
• Feb. 8: Neil Young urges Spotify employees to quit their jobs and “get out of that place before it eats up your soul,” NBC News reports, adding that “Rogan’s team and Spotify did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News.”

Nearly a month since it all began, stories still are being written, people are still chattering on social media and we’re still sorting through the Spotify PR debris.

Failure to plan

To be fair, Spotify’s leaders couldn’t have predicted all this…could they?

Perhaps not this specific scenario. But they should have planned for how to respond to a demand for content to be removed – especially in the current cancel culture climate. And they should have brainstormed how to respond if one of Spotify’s high-profile artists suddenly became controversial.

All that and more should be part of an organization’s crisis communications plan. At Hennes, our plans include working with an organization’s leadership team on a vulnerability audit to identify likely and reputation-threatening scenarios.  And then preparing communications for those scenarios.

As PR News wrote: “For Sonia Diaz, founder and president of Zaid Communications, the Spotify/Rogan situation lacked clear crisis planning. ‘Companies have the right to partner with whomever they see fit, and CEOs can double-down, but when you know you are dealing with something that is or could be controversial in nature, you should also work ahead of time to mitigate the risks that go along with making those choices,’ she says.”

Non-apology apologies make matters worse

If you’re truly sorry for what you did, by all means say so. Effective apologies can save your organization’s reputation – and money. Sorry Works! is a website designed to teach the healthcare industry how to apologize because, well, sorry works. It’s a lesson every organization should take to heart.

On the other hand, don’t follow Rogan’s lead in this case. His statement “…if I pissed you off, I’m sorry” is NOT an apology.

And he did himself and Spotify no favors when he “apologized” for his use of the N-word and other racist language. While he offers “sincerest apologies,” Rogan apparently can’t help also noting his comments were taken “out of context.”

In doing so, as PR News notes, Rogan hits “the non-apology apology meter.”

And prompts a quick – and logical – response from India Arie: “In no uncertain terms, he shouldn’t even be uttering the word. Don’t say it in any context.”

No comment doesn’t work.

Finally, choosing to say nothing will do exactly that in protecting your reputation – nothing.

Throughout the crisis, for the most part, Spotify has declined to respond to media requests, issue proactive statements on its position or otherwise comment in public.

Meanwhile, Spotify’s “internal” remarks, memos, etc., have been leaked straight from employee meetings to the media.

Exhibit 1: “Spotify CEO Daniel Ek told employees Sunday that while he strongly condemns past racial slurs used by Joe Rogan, he won’t cut ties with the platform’s most popular podcaster, according to an internal memo obtained by Axios.”

Exhibit 2: “Spotify CEO Daniel Ek addressed employees about the Joe Rogan controversy in a 15-minute speech yesterday, of which The Verge obtained audio, defending the company’s choice to work with Rogan, explaining its reasoning, and defining why he believes Spotify is a combination of a platform and a publisher.”

Like it or not, amid a crisis, assume that everything you say is going public. So, the better course is to start with those internal communications – when, again, you’ll be telling the truth and describing how you and your organization are committed to taking actions to right the wrong. And then as soon as possible make those communications public. Before someone else does it for you.

Or continue to not tell your own story and invite this:

“Spotify employees, if you have any clarity on what’s happening behind the scenes or thoughts to share, I’m at ashley.carman@theverge.com and on Twitter, where you can DM for my Signal.”

Thom Fladung is managing partner of Hennes Communications. Got a crisis? Ready to tell the truth? Contact him at fladung@crisiscommunications.com or 216-213-5196.