Tech

Joe Rogan has finally weighed in on the controversy swirling around his Spotify podcast, “The Joe Rogan Experience,” saying, “I’m not trying to promote misinformation.” In a nearly 10-minute long video posted on his Instagram account on Sunday night, Rogan said, “I think there’s a lot of people that have a distorted perception of what

Spotify has bowed in the face of pressure from critics about supporting the spread of COVID and vaccine misinformation with a plan to add warning labels on its global platform to content that skirts the line between “what is acceptable and what is not,” as CEO Daniel Ek stated Sunday. Ek’s lengthy statement outlining Spotify’s

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Archewell production company said they are continuing to press Spotify to make changes to address the “serious harms” presented by COVID misinformation on its platform. The erstwhile British royal couple have an exclusive multiyear podcast deal with Spotify, although to date they have released only one short holiday audio special.

As the Spotify-Neil Young-Joe Rogan controversy continued to rage on Saturday amid a firestorm of criticism toward the streaming giant, an image reading “Delete Spotify” appeared on Spotify’s own platform in a very unexpected place: the homepage of the ‘90s alt-rock band Belly — and only on desktop, not on phones. A rep for Spotify

Spotify’s market capitalization fell about $2.1 billion over a three-day span this week, coming after folk rocker Neil Young yanked his songs from the audio-streaming giant to protest Joe Rogan’s misinformation-spreading podcast. Shares of Spotify fell 6% from Jan. 26-28. Over the same time period, the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose 1.7% and the Dow

Joni Mitchell has pledged to remove her music from Spotify, just a few days after fellow singer-songwriter icon Neil Young did the same. In a note on her official website titled “I Stand With Neil Young!,” Mitchell wrote: “I’ve decided to remove all my music from Spotify. Irresponsible people are spreading lies that are costing

Neil Young wants his fans to keep on rockin’ in the free world — but on Amazon Music, not Spotify. On Friday, Young announced a special deal with Amazon Music, giving new subscribers four months free of the streamer. The move by the 76-year-old music icon comes two days after he demanded that Spotify pull

In media, it’s the age of optimization and personalization. How Hollywood harnesses technology to meet consumer demand for ever-more forms of content served up on an ever-widening array of platforms was the focus of Variety’s Winter Entertainment Summit, which ran virtually from Jan. 26-27. Industry insiders from a range of disciplines — from streaming content

John Stankey and Brian Roberts are wrestling with different sides of the same problems. For Big Media, the fourth-quarter earnings revelations so far have reinforced predictions that 2022 is the year the honeymoon ends for the promise of new streaming ventures. Now it’s entrenching time. The streaming wars shift to a month-by-month, country-by-country battle to

Apple has shelled out untold millions on original content for Apple TV Plus. And CEO Tim Cook acknowledged that it isn’t necessarily looking for a financial payback on that investment. “We don’t make purely financial decisions about the content [on Apple TV Plus]. We try to find great content that has a reason for being,”

Apple turned in another smashing holiday quarter, posting a Wall Street-beating record $123.9 billion in sales for the last three months of 2021, even as the tech behemoth saw overall sales decelerate in the period amid ongoing supply-chain constraints. Total revenue increased 11% in the the quarter ended Dec. 25, 2021, which is Apple’s Q1

Crooked Media, the liberal-leaning podcast and media company founded by three ex-Obama aides, is expanding its political and news content lineup with its first podcast acquisitions: “Strict Scrutiny,” which follows the U.S. Supreme Court, and “Hot Take,” covering the climate crisis. Financial terms of the deals were not disclosed. The pair of weekly talk shows

Disney and WWE inked a multiyear agreement to make Disney Plus Hotstar the exclusive home for WWE Network in Indonesia. WWE Network, including its live event content, will be available on Disney Plus Hotstar in Indonesia beginning with Royal Rumble (available on the morning of Sunday, Jan. 30, local time). It’s the first standalone international

Wasting no time in the wake of Neil Young’s decision to remove his music from Spotify to protest the anti-vaccine views expressed on Joe Rogan’s podcast on the service, SiriusXM has relaunched Neil Young Radio, a satellite and streaming music channel featuring music and exclusive stories from Neil Young. Following its launch in December as a

Universal Music Group, Twitch and Amazon Music have announced an expansion of the companies’ agreements. According to the announcement, the agreements will provide customers with enhanced access to some of the world’s most popular music content on Amazon, including live streams, high quality and spatial audio, artist merchandise, and exclusive experiences with UMG’s industry leading roster

Snap secured multiyear renewals on global content deals with a trio of big media companies — Disney, NBCUniversal and ViacomCBS — encompassing a range of new shows coming to Snapchat. The three companies will continue their collaboration with Snap to provide their current shows on Snapchat’s Discover and individually plan to bring more shows to

Serial Productions, the company behind the true-crime show that helped trigger the podcast boom, is coming out with a new limited-series looking into a hysteria in Britain triggered by an alleged Islamic plan to infiltrate the country’s schools — which may have all been a hoax. “The Trojan Horse Affair” is hosted by Brian Reed,

UPDATED: NBCUniversal’s Peacock, entering its third year of operation, sank deeper into investment-mode red ink in 2021 — with adjusted losses at the streamer more than doubling. NBCU parent Comcast outlined plans to boost spending on Peacock content even more in 2022 and beyond. Comcast, in reporting Q4 earnings Thursday, revealed that Peacock generated $778

Naples-set young adult series “The Sea Beyond,” which depicts the world of a juvenile jail in the crime-ridden Italian city, is scoring a slew of international sales prompted by its phenomenal ratings on pubcaster RAI. Germany’s Beta Film, which is selling the show about kids behind bars produced by Rome-based Picomedia and RAI Fiction, has

Howard Stern has slammed Joe Rogan in the past for spreading misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine, but that doesn’t mean Stern wants to see the controversial Spotify radio host shunned in public opinion. Speaking on his Sirius XM radio show this week, Stern said he doesn’t believe in censorship and expressed a level of admiration

Netflix shares — after dropping 30% over the past week — rose more than 4% in after-hours trading Wednesday after Bill Ackman, head of the Pershing Square Capital Management hedge fund, disclosed that his firm had bought more than $1 billion worth of the streamer’s stock. Starting last Friday (Jan. 21) and over the next

Dan Bongino, the right-wing commentator and Fox News host, was permanently banned by YouTube for trying to bypass the platform’s suspension of one of his accounts over a violation of the platform’s COVID-19 misinformation policy. Bongino’s two YouTube channels, including his main channel that most recently had about 882,000 subscribers, have been removed from the

Spotify will remove Neil Young’s music from its platform, per his request, following his objections to Joe Rogan’s statements about the Covid-19 vaccine on his Spotify-hosted show. The music is expected to be removed later Wednesday. A rep for Spotify said in a statement to Variety: “We want all the world’s music and audio content

Audible has been in the audio-content biz for more than 20 years. Now, amid the recent podcast explosion, the Amazon-owned premium audio storytelling platform is aggressively investing in original and exclusive content — including a burgeoning slate from high-profile Hollywood talent. On the latest episode of Variety’s “Strictly Business” podcast — it’s a meta podcast about

After a pivot from an in-person event at CES due to the omicron surge, Variety’s virtual Winter Entertainment Summit will start streaming Jan. 27. Many of the panelists have their eyes on what will be next for their businesses and how to capture and engage consumers. Variety co-editor-in-chief Cyn-thia Littleton will host panel Best Way

“American Idol” creator Simon Fuller has unveiled “the first group ever to be born on TikTok.” The Future X is made up of three singers and four dancers, each discovered on the social media platform. All seven members — Angie Green, Luke Brown, and Maci Wood plus dancers Jayna Hughes, Sasha Marie, Tray Taylor and

AT&T topped Wall Street estimates for the fourth quarter of 2021, with WarnerMedia revenue gains driving top-line results — helped by strong growth of HBO Max — although the division’s operating income dropped 38% on higher costs. The company also announced that it expects the WarnerMedia spinoff and merger with Discovery to close in the

Tencent, the Chinese entertainment and tech group, was given approval last week to move ahead with its planned $1.27 billion (£900 million) acquisition of games group Sumo Group. The purchase, first announced in July last year, is one of the Chinese giant’s largest moves to date in the U.K. Sumo is best known for “Sackboy:

The relationship between artist and fan is ever evolving and how will it look in the years to come will not at all resemble its past. So as music and Web3 intersect, questions are being explored. Like, what drives music fans from a human perspective? With the majority of people accessing music through streaming platforms,

Spotify inked an exclusive podcast deal with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex more than a year ago  — and since then, the couple has produced only a 2020 holiday special for the streamer. Previously, Spotify and the couple’s Archewell Audio had said they expected the first series to premiere in 2021. Now, after no