“You have to realize that there is no way to make everyone happy,” he says. Pliner says the most effective leaders he advises are those who answer questions like these by looking at the intersection of their morals, ethical context and job responsibilities. “Or do they want to be known as a company that protects its customer base?” “Do they want to be known as a company that forgives Joe Rogan and supports anti-vaxxers?” Fink asks. Choosing between stakeholders won’t be an easy decision for a company like Spotify, they say, but executives should let their values guide the way. The gambit hasn’t paid off for Spotify, crisis experts warn, and now the company must make a clear and decisive choice between keeping Rogan on its podcast service or supporting public safety and health. “But they don’t just give a platform to anyone who wants it-they give a platform to people who are able to make money for them.” “Spotify is saying they don’t believe in silencing someone who expresses a different point of view,” says Eric Pliner, CEO of YSC Consulting and author of Difficult Decisions. But this reasoning, experts say, is further evidence that the company cares more about short-term profits than satisfying upset customers. Despite its exclusive deal with Rogan, the company has tended to avoid labeling itself as a publisher since it doesn’t have advance approval of his shows, and can only remove episodes if they run afoul of their content guidelines. Spotify’s stance over Rogan has raised questions about the company’s responsibility to police the content on its platform. Neil Young later demanded that his music be removed from the platform, followed by Joni Mitchell and a handful of other artists. Traffic to the cancellation page for Spotify Premium spiked 196% the week after a group of nearly 300 scientists and doctors wrote a letter to Spotify asking it to step in to keep medical misinformation off their platform. “As soon as primary stakeholders start getting upset, their reputation is damaged,” he says. The first thing a company should consider when dealing with a controversy is how its various stakeholders are reacting-specifically, its customers, says Jonathan Bernstein, a crisis manager with over 25 years of experience. “That’s never a good position to be in.”įor Spotify, Rogan’s podcast is a cash cow: It reaches an estimated 11 million listeners per episode, making it the streaming service’s most popular podcast–and its millennial audience closely aligns with Spotify’s target customer.įrom a social consciousness perspective, though, experts say the company mismanaged its crisis response and should have placed a greater emphasis on its long-term reputation. “It shows that they care more about profits than their reputation,” says Steven Fink, a crisis consultant and author of Crisis Communications: The Definitive Guide to Managing the Message. By not cutting ties with Rogan, Spotify faces growing pressure to take a stronger stance about the podcasts it hosts. The wildly popular podcaster has been accused of spreading false narratives about the coronavirus, and condemned for his past use of a racial slur. But Spotify is not canceling Joe Rogan-and that could be a problem, crisis management experts tell TIME.
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