After controversy surrounding their star podcast host Joe Rogan came to a head last year, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek promised that the company would invest $100 million in music and other audio content from “historically marginalized groups” in an initiative called the Creator Equity Fund. But just over a later, Spotify execs have spent only 10% of that budget.
According to Bloomberg, the Creator Equity Fund had a hard time initially getting off the ground, taking months to hire staff and getting the brunt of “shifting priorities.” It doesn’t seem like they’ve had much luck sorting out their 2023 plans, either: A memo obtained by Bloomberg said that at the beginning of the year, they were still finalizing the fund’s budget and were still sorting out their priority projects.
“The Spotify Creator Equity Fund is dedicated to a variety of initiatives that help elevate and support an inclusive and diverse portfolio of artists and creators on the platform,” a spokesperson for Spotify wrote in a statement. “We are able to empower and uplift underrepresented voices around the world.”
And that $100 million dollar amount is significant in itself, as many outlets reported that Rogan’s contract had the same price tag (others have estimated his contract was actually over $200 million). Although Spotify did appoint a project manager and organized teams to pitch ideas, create new shows, and assist with marketing, the initiative ultimately lacked sufficient structure in terms of fielding projects and allocating money.
Ek’s February 2022 letter to Spotify employees announcing the initiative didn’t mention how long the Spotify Creator Equity Fund was supposed to last, either, describing it only as an “incremental investment.” A Spotify spokesperson insisted that the system was working, however, and that the fund was designed to last for an ill-defined “multiple years” rather than a set time frame.
“We are seriously questioning this company’s commitment to funding this committee, and by extension, the values it represents,” unionized employees at Spotify’s true crime podcast network Parcast wrote in a statement to Bloomberg.
This isn’t the first time that Spotify has been questioned over the legitimacy of their initiatives. In March 2022, Consequence reported that the company’s Loud & Clear initiative — their response to worldwide protests demanding higher royalty payments for artists — used ambiguous language to tout themselves as an artist-friendly platform. That wasn’t long after Spotify was already in the hot seat following the mass exodus of musicians pulling their music from the platform, largely initiated by Neil Young.
