The numbers are in and Joe Rogan is on top despite the liberal push to cancel the outspoken podcaster. Rogan became a target when he started speaking out against the liberal grooming agenda and the government forced mandates. Libs dubbed him ‘misinformation’ and tried to have his show ripped off of Spotify.
A few mildly relevant celebs even threatened to cancel their accounts if Spotify was stuck by Rogan. Of course, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell only ‘paused’ their music but Spotify didn’t flinch.
“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.
Spotify was the 2nd largest music streaming service in Russia. The fact that they blocked their service in Russia and still came out way ahead of the mark speaks volumes.
Erica Carlin is an independent journalist, opinion writer and contributor to several news and opinion sources. She is based in Georgia.