Spotify CEO defends Joe Rogan deal in tense company town hall
theverge.com
theverge.com
Well that's extremely depressing. Please, please, please do not use Spotify if you listen to podcasts. Instead looks at something like Overcast or any other smaller podcast clients. Podcasts should be open and just use rss/xml. Proprietary podcast feeds are the opposite of what podcasts as a medium stand for.
This isn't a "everything should be free" stance, I pay for many podcasts but they all give me a special URL with my token in it for authentication and I can use that in any player I want.
I do give money via Patreon for a number of podcasts, and in one instance I have to jump through some hoops to get the special content. The others, I just give money because I like it, and the extra content either doesn't exist or doesn't interest me.
If more people move to some kind of locked podcast, I'd have to switch. Which would be too bad because I really, really like Pocket Casts in every other respect. I do hope more creators find ways to monetize their podcasts.
But I'm sure never gonna use Spotify. Even before they spent $100 million dollars to make a jerk the face of their company. So when the CEO says "it’s really easy to conclude we endorse every word he says and believe the opinions expressed by his guests" -- yeah, it sure as heck does when you spend that kind of money on it.