Spotify, a leading audio streaming platform, announced a $100 million Creator Equity Fund in response to the Joe Rogan controversy in 2022. However, after the first year, the company has spent less than $10 million of the fund on music and podcasting projects. A spokesperson from Spotify shared that the company’s spending was higher when accounting for administrative costs and other community initiatives, such as a partnership with Spelman College, an historically Black women’s school in Atlanta.
The Creator Equity Fund was launched to promote diversity in music and podcasts following the removal of Neil Young’s music from the platform due to Rogan’s alleged spread of Covid-19 misinformation and a viral video of Rogan using the n-word. Some of the projects funded by Spotify include Glow, an LGBTQ creator initiative, marketing campaigns for artists like Ice Spice and Chief Keef, and funding new seasons of podcasts We Said What We Said and Nailing It.
Meanwhile, Spotify’s Parcast studio and its union have faced issues with a separate internal fund specifically designed for their use. In February, the committee in charge of that budget sent a letter to management demanding clarity on its utilization, as the company had only approved $5,000 of the $100,000 annual budget.
In other industry news, Danish podcast subscription company Podimo is scaling back on deal conversations in the UK, focusing on growing existing audiences instead of creating new programming. The global recorded music market also saw growth of 9% in 2022, driven primarily by paid subscription streaming.
