India.Arie on how Stevie Wonder helped her through a tough night of losing at the Grammys: Because I can’t not tell the truth is the pact I’ve made with myself.” So this is all wishful thinking though because the truth is, I did it because it’s true for me and it’s what brought me peace. And so if we all leave Spotify or enough of us leave, they’ll either change it, or people who want to hear you will stream you somewhere else where you can get paid better. But that’s how we feel about our art, but some of the other streaming platforms pay better. But if you ask the artists it’s worth more than gold. No platform pays as much as the artist is actually worth. And also streaming doesn’t pay artists a lot. Because if you take the power from them, the power’s taken. Because one of the hashtags I put on my posts was #WhatIfWeAllLeave. “My hope is that some of my artist friends would follow and come along with me.
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India.Arie on her hope that fellow artists will consider leaving Spotify as well: And so now we’re all amplified and not just him. But also what would make me comfortable is for artists to get paid more than a fraction of a penny. But in our communities, the music communities, we all have a great reverence for say, Questlove, who has a wonderful big podcast, but does he get paid $100 million? Those kinds of things, like the equity, even in the podcast world, I’d love to see. I’m not being technical, because I don’t know this world very well. What would make me comfortable is if there were voices of integrity and high consciousness amplified as loud as his. I mean, as much as I think some of the things I’ve heard him say in these videos is disgusting, he can say it. “You know, I said in my statement that I believe in freedom of speech, and I do. India.Arie on what Spotify can do to address her concerns: And so I am working to have it pulled down.” And it’s not always my job to educate people about how I feel, although I try. And I’m a little bit nervous about it because I know people are gonna conflate the conversations and some people are gonna judge me and they’re gonna say it’s not my business and you know all these things because it is a little bit of a different reason than Joni and Neil but also, it’s my truth. And so I’ve been doing that since maybe around May, and so when this came up, I had to do it. And so artists are underpaid and Joe Rogan gets paid all this money and it’s hard for me to, these days, just sit back and go, ‘Oh, well, that’s how it goes.’ I made a commitment with myself, after reading this book by Martha Beck called The Way of Integrity – she challenges the reader to an integrity cleanse and it means telling the whole truth all the time and see what it will make of your life. One is the Joe Rogan conversation and for me his language around race and some of the things I’ve seen and heard, but also coupled with that, there is the treatment of artists by Spotify. “Yes, I decided to pull my music and my podcast from Spotify but it’s dual. India.Arie on her decision to pull her podcast and music from Spotify:
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While it’s clear that the controversy is far from over, it’s important to realize that this is a multi-faceted issue and that race and global health are at the center. (One wonders what his supporters have to say about that and India.Arie’s video.) Not long after posting the video, Rolling Stone reports that more than 70 of Rogan’s episodes were “quietly” pulled from Spotify. The video collection of Rogan using the heinous word repeatedly can be seen below or HERE. The artist also recently shared a video of podcaster Joe Rogan, whose popular show is hosted exclusively by Spotify and has been the focus of criticism for misinformation regarding the COVID-19 vaccination mandates, using the N-word repeatedly.Īnd to prove that, the video India.Arie shared shows Rogan saying the “N-Word” many, many times-without retribution to date.
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That is symbolized by Rogan, in many ways, she says. She pulled her content because, as she said, the music industry is racist and dangerous.
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India.Arie did not leave Spotify-pulling her music and podcast, which had over a million followers-simply because of medical misinformation. On Friday (February 4), R&B artist India.Arie went on the Tamron Hall show and talked about her reasons for leaving Spotify.