Hello, Hemisphereans! In light of the recent controversy surrounding The Joe Rogan Experience on Spotify, resulting from Neil Young’s challenge to the company to deal with misinformation on that show and others, we have decided to remove our podcast from Spotify’s catalogue. This is a complicated issue and we realise that no individual or company is perfect at managing the flow of intentional or unintentional misinformation. In this case, however, we feel that Spotify's decision to host and fund such content makes it a less desirable place to be. Other platforms such as Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Amazon's Audible service may feature similar misinformation, but they point to RSS feeds in directories rather than pay for and host the content. Of course, if other companies either promote or fail to deal with harmful misinformation, then we would reassess our connection with them as well.
Over the past few years, Spotify has also moved to make more exclusive shows, which is its right to do as a business, however this has contributed to the fracturing of the open podcasting landscape: one that has been made more equal and accessible through RSS on the open Web. We use Fireside as our hosting service because of its integration with and support of RSS as a delivery mechanism for podcasts and blog posts.
We apologise to any listening Hemispherean who has enjoyed our show on Spotify; we even advertised recently that we were on the platform! Instead we would encourage you to listen and subscribe through our website, by adding our RSS feed to a podcast app or visiting us on Apple Podcasts, Castbox, Castro, Google Podcasts, Overcast or Pocket Casts. You can even discover us through Listen Notes, the open podcast search engine.
By listening to our show (and others) through a podcasting app that prioritises RSS, you'll be supporting a more open ecosystem that grants all audio producers the opportunity to be heard on a range of apps and platforms.