Spotify executives have solely spent 10 per cent of their $100million (£81.75million) finances on a brand new fund to advertise music and audio content material by members of “traditionally marginalised teams”.
The Creator Equity Fund was launched final 12 months within the wake of controversy surrounding Joe Rogan’s Spotify-exclusive podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, attributable to makes use of of the N-word and COVID-19 vaccine misinformation.
Just over a 12 months on, nevertheless, Bloomberg has discovered that the initiative has acquired off to a gradual begin. Spotify was discovered to have taken months to rent employees and cope with “shifting priorities”, and Bloomberg additionally obtained a memo which mentioned that at the start of the 12 months, they had been nonetheless finalising the fund’s finances and had been nonetheless finding out their precedence initiatives.
A venture supervisor was appointed and groups assembled to pitch and create reveals and help with advertising, the initiative lacked sufficient of a construction when it comes to fielding initiatives and funding.
“The Spotify Creator Equity Fund is devoted to quite a lot of initiatives that assist elevate and assist an inclusive and numerous portfolio of artists and creators on the platform,” a spokesperson for Spotify mentioned in an announcement. “We are capable of empower and uplift underrepresented voices world wide.”
Many retailers have identified that the Creator Equity Fund had the identical finances as Rogan’s contract with Spotify (although others have estimated that his contract was value twice as a lot).
Spotify’s CEO Daniel Ek additionally failed to say when the initiative was introduced how lengthy it could final, describing it solely as an “incremental funding.” A Spotify spokesperson insisted that the system was working, however mentioned that he fund was designed to final “a number of years” fairly than a set time-frame.
“We are significantly questioning this firm’s dedication to funding this committee, and by extension, the values it represents,” unionised staff at Spotify’s true crime podcast community Parcast wrote in an announcement to Bloomberg.
Following the Rogan controversy final 12 months, the likes of Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Graham Nash and Nils Lofgren all pulled their catalogues from the streaming platform as a method of protest.
