Joe Rogan apologizes for racial slur after video surfaces

America’s Got Talent judges have paid tribute to series star Jane Marczewski, who died on Sunday 19 February after being diagnosed with cancer. She was 31.

DEALSAerosmith have signed a deal with Universal Music’s merch-tastic Epic Rights for global brand management. “We are THRILLED to have Aerosmith, one of the all-time greatest rock icons, on the Epic Rights roster”, says the company’s SVP Global Licensing Lisa Streff. ”In anticipation of the upcoming 50th anniversary activities, we’re excited to be developing a global licensing programme that will celebrate and illustrate the band’s career at retail”.

Spotify may have paid at least $200million for the exclusive rights to Joe Rogan’s podcast, double the figure that was previously reported.The streaming giant secured an exclusive license to host The Joe Rogan Experience in May 2020, when it was widely reported the controversial podcast host had been paid over $100million as part of the deal.However, “two people familiar with the details of the transaction” have since claimed to The New York Times that the three-and-a-half-year deal was actually worth twice what was initially believed: at least $200million. Spotify has yet to publicly comment on this report.The Times points out Spotify had previously purchased whole content companies – podcast network Gimlet Media and digital media brand The Ringer – both for slightly less than $200million each.In recent weeks, Spotify has come under fire for hosting The Joe Rogan Experience, its biggest podcast in the US and many other countries, with an estimated per-episode listenership of around 11million people.Last month, Neil Young requested the platform pull his catalogue, citing “false information about vaccines” being spread on the platform and specifically targeting Rogan’s podcast.

Kanye West and his girlfriend Julia Fox are no longer together, representatives for the actress have confirmed. The Uncut Gems star and the US rapper remain "close friends and collaborators" but have ceased to be an official couple.

Neil Young has spoken out over a developing conspiracy theory that his music publishing is overseen by pharmaceutical corporation Pfizer – the company behind one of the most widely-used COVID-19 vaccines.In a since-deleted letter posted to his Neil Young Archives website (as transcribed by Stereogum), Young addressed the circulated belief his views on vaccines were dictated to him by Pfizer – who, according to the conspiracy theory, own Young’s music publishing.The misunderstanding stems from the fact that a former CEO at Pfizer now serves as a senior advisor for asset manager Blackstone, which currently has a partnership with music publisher Hipgnosis – with whom Young presently works.Young described the conspiracy theory as “clever but wrong” in the letter, while also quipping “so much for Pharm Aid” – a reference to both the common conspiracy theory trope of “big pharma” and his own charity Farm Aid.“The publishing share Hipgnosis has in my copyrights is in the Hipgnosis Songs Fund, that is publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange,” Young explained.“The Blackstone investment went into a separate Hipgnosis Private Fund, and none of that money was used for the Hipgnosis Songs Fund. Pfizer has not invested in Hipgnosis, but a past Pfizer CEO is a senior advisor for Blackstone.” The conspiracy theory is part of an ongoing conservative backlash against Young – most recently expressed by right-wing American rock musician Ted Nugent, who described Young as a “stoner birdbrain punk” for his recent protest against Spotify and Joe Rogan.Young removed his catalogue of albums from Spotify last month to protest the platform having Rogan’s podcast The Joe Rogan Experience as an exclusive to the service.

As if things weren’t bad enough for the people working at Spotify following all the recent controversies around the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, now they’ve got Ted Nugent coming to their defence – and via the daily podcast he records for the pro-hunting lobby group he advises and represents. Lovely stuff.On Friday night’s edition of the ‘The Nightly Nuge’ podcast, Nugent’s co-host Keith Mark brought up how that Canadian Neil Young is again talking politics in the USA, before musing how a musician that has in the past spoken up for free speech is now pro-censorship.Which isn’t true, of course, but it was Young who instigated the artist boycott of Spotify over the COVID misinformation contained in Rogan’s Spotify exclusive podcast.Young and other artists who have spoken out about the controversial COVID conversations that have occurred on Rogan’s programme insist that they are not calling for censorship.However, they argue, platforms like Spotify have a responsibility to counter misleading information that could negatively impact on people’s health, and they’d rather not be associated with any platforms that aren’t fulfilling that responsibility.Asked what he makes of Young and his Spotify boycott, Nugent initially said some nice things about his fellow musician, but then added “the guy is a complete punk”.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticThe most surprising thing about Jon Stewart’s recent defense of the comic and podcaster Joe Rogan might have been that it made waves at all.Stewart, on a podcast affiliated with his Apple TV Plus series “The Problem With Jon Stewart,” called the reaction to claims Rogan has made about COVID-19 vaccines “a mistake.” Stewart compared Rogan, the podcaster and comic, to “dishonest, bad actors,” and said that identifying such people “is so much more important to me.” He added, “You have to engage. Like, how do you not engage with people? The whole point of engagement is, hopefully, clarification… It might be a fool’s errand, but I will never give up on engagement.” This argument brought Stewart — a discourse-shifting TV icon in his time as host of “The Daily Show,” and a figure who has lately struggled to break into the conversation — back into the news.

Neil Young has taken another swipe at Spotify after pulling his music from the platform to take a stand against COVID-19 vaccine misinformation being spread by podcaster Joe Rogan.

Spotify over their alleged support of vaccine misinformation, Neil Young has encouraged workers at Spotify – as well as fellow musicians – to step away from the streaming giant.“In our communication age, misinformation is the problem,” he wrote in a statement to his website yesterday (February 7). “Ditch the misinformers. Find a good clean place to support with your monthly checks.

In his latest salvo against Spotify, rocker Neil Young is urging musicians, creators and even employees to abandon the streaming service, telling Spotify workers to “get out of that place before it eats up your soul.”

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been written off as “deadbeats” and “grifters" by US talk show hosts following speculation they may exit their deal with Spotify amid recent controversy surrounding the streaming platform. Spotify has received wide bashing from users and celebrities for its association with podcaster Joe Rogan, who has been accused of spreading anti-vaccine propaganda on his show, exclusively produced for the content-sharing service. As Harry and Meghan ­­– who are major supporters of vaccinations – are also tied to the platform through a $25 million podcasting deal, it’s been thought that the couple might now turn their backs on Spotify following many others.

health experts. The company also aims to bolster transparency about its publishing decisions by laying out the rules it uses to protect users’ safety.Spotify didn't respond immediately for request for comment.

Joe Rogan has issued an apology after past videos of him using a racial slur resurfaced on social media.The host of  took to Instagram on Saturday and admitted that using the N-word on at least 24 occasions «looks f***ing horrible.» Rogan posted a 5-minute, 46 seconds video addressing the latest backlash, and it came just days after India Arie cited those clips as to what led her to pull her music from Spotify, home to Rogan's podcast.«There's a video that's out, that's a compilation of me saying the N-word,» Rogan said in his video. «It's a video that's made of clips taken out of context of me of 12 years of conversations on my podcast, and it's all smushed together.»A post shared by Joe Rogan (@joerogan)Nevertheless, Rogan says using the racial slur was wrong and he regrets it.«Now, I haven't said it in years, but for a long time, when I would bring that word up, like if it would come up in a conversation and instead of saying the N-word, I would just say the word.