“Just think about their depth of influence in the world,” says Capitol Music Group chairman-CEO Steve Barnett of Spotify. Should the Sweden-based firm’s bold move backfire, its partners at the major record labels will feel the pain too. Its fortunes are largely bound with Spotify, which is becoming the industry’s top music distributor. Spotify will report fourth-quarter earnings on Wednesday, after the market closes.Spotify and Wall Street aren’t the only ones that will be anxiously watching count the music industry in as well. That’s how much Ek, who launched the Sweden-based platform in 2008 with business partner Martin Lorentzon, is worth, according to Forbes. The firm’s now valued at about $36 billion. Though they skyrocketed as much as 150% during the pandemic, Spotify shares have plunged more than 50% from an all-time closing high of nearly $365 last February, wiping out more than $30 billion from the firm’s market capitalization-including $10 billion this month alone. (Rogan followed with his own apology.) Surprising Fact Responding on Sunday, CEO Daniel Ek said Spotify has “heard the criticism" and will add warnings to combat misinformation. Though analysts have yet to point to the backlash as having any real impact, several musical artists, including Neil Young, Nils Lofgren and Joni Mitchell, removed their music from Spotify last week due to Rogan’s claims. The Spotify-Rogan relationship came under intense scrutiny this month after a group of 270 health experts published an open letter on January 12 urging the platform to establish a clear misinformation policy in response to rampant Covid misinformation on the podcast, pointing to Rogan’s consistent promotion of ivermectin as a treatment for the virus, despite the Food and Drug Administration warning that it’s not proved to be efficacious. In October, the firm said the Rogan podcast, which attracts an estimated 11 million viewers per episode, contributed to an overall increase in third-quarter revenue. Though it’s long focused on music, the company has more recently turned to podcasting in a bid to grow its business, acquiring audio company Podz for $50 million in June and exclusive licensing rights for “The Joe Rogan Experience” in a $100 million deal one year earlier. Since its founding in 2006, Spotify has become the world’s most popular audio streaming service, with more than 381 million active users, 172 paying subscribers and 70 million tracks on the platform. White said the “troubling” quarter for Netflix, whose shares have plunged 30% since the report, “has cast a cloud of suspicion over the Spotify story,” and lowered his price target for the music-streaming service from $380 to $240.
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