Spotify blames ‘technical issue’ as Joe Rogan’s podcast vanishes

Spotify says the issue, which is also affecting other podcasts, will be resolved soon

Joe Rogan’s podcast vanished from Spotify due to what the platform said were “technical issues”.

The controversial podcast was unavailable on Friday, with sharp-eyed social media users flagging the disappearance of Rogan’s The Joe Rogan Experience.

The podcast has caused an ongoing headache for Spotify, with numerous other artists and podcast hosts - including Neil Young, and Joni Mitchell - saying they would pull their work from the platform over its decision to continue running Rogan’s podcast, which contains Covid-19 vaccine misinformation.

Spotify told Engadget that the issue, which is also affecting other podcasts such as The Bill Simmons Podcast, would be resolved soon.

The issue arose less than two weeks after Rogan turned down a $100m offer from Rumble to bring all of his shows to the conservative-leaning platform.

During a Q&A session of the 54-year-old podcaster’s stand-up show on 8 February, someone from the audience asked him whether he was considering accepting Rumble’s offer.

“No, Spotify has hung in with me, inexplicably, let’s see what happens,” replied the controversial podcaster.

Rumble’s chief executive Chris Pavlovski had offered Rogan $100m “over four years” to leave Spotify.

“We’d like to offer you 100 million reasons to make the world a better place,” Pavlovski said in a statement.

“How about you bring all your shows to Rumble, both old and new, with no censorship, for 100 million bucks over four years? This is our chance to save the world. And yes, this is totally legit,” he added.

Rogan had signed a deal with Spotify in 2019 reportedly for more than $100m to be the exclusive host ofThe Joe Rogan Experience.

Both he and Spotify came under fire earlier this year as a slew of celebrities demanded the podcast be removed as it was accused of spreading false and misleading information about the pandemic and vaccines.

The scandal resulted in Spotify publishing its content guidelines for the first time, as well as attaching a disclaimer to Covid-related content with links to scientifically validated information.

Rogan also found himself at the centre of a renewed controversy when singer India.Arie shared an edited compilation of him using the N-word several times on his podcast and asked for her content to be removed from the platform as well.

The podcaster has since apologised for it, saying the compilation was “the most regretful and shameful thing I’ve ever had to talk about publicly”.