I proudly stand with Joni Mitchell and Neil Young. As of today, you can no longer find Conversations About Collaboration on the world’s most popular podcast services—er, “platform.”¹ (We’ll see how long the company continues to hold that distinction. The word tenuous comes to mind.)

Platform Perversion

I call bullshit on CEO Daniel Ek’s claim that Spotify is sometimes a platform and other times a publisher. In the immortal words of The Church Lady, how convenient.

Sorry, Danny. It doesn’t work that way.

When you pay $100,000,000 to someone for exclusive publication rights, the idea that your company remains a neutral platform is freakin’ absurd. (As the author of The Age of the Platform, I feel particularly qualified to render judgment here.) Your company is a publisher. Big difference, dude.

Hey, at least he’s not alone in practicing platform perversion.

Will my humble actions alone hurt Spotify’s business? I’m no fool. If enough people follow suit, then its stock will continue to tumble.

Call it cancel culture if you like, but isn’t voting with our wallets the ultimate expression of capitalism? My doppelgänger Scott Galloway sure thinks so.

I’m no activist, but I’ve taken principled stands before that have most likely hurt my business. In 2017, I deleted my Facebook account. (I only wish that I had done so sooner.) Better to burn out than to fade away, right?

Simon Says

The right to free speech isn’t absolute. Clean up Spotify’s act, Ek. Your “platform” is causing a great deal of harm.