In the latest instalment of the Joe Rogan vs. Spotify (SPOT) saga, right-wing Canadian video platform Rumble CFVI has offered to match Rogan's $100 million contract with Spotify.
"How about you bring all your shows to Rumble, both old and new, with no censorship for 100 million bucks over four years?" Rumble founder and Chief Executive Chris Pavlovski wrote in the letter published on Twitter (TWTR).
"We are ready to fight alongside you," Rumble added in the tweet accompanying the letter.
Even though Rogan has yet to respond, CF Acquisition VI shares soared by over 40% after news of the offer broke on Monday. The company currently has a market cap of $576.44 million.
Young Vs. Rogan
The controversy began when two weeks ago, rock and roll musician Neil Young asked Spotify to remove his music over their choice to platform Rogan's contract podcast.
Young said the "Joe Rogan Experience," which was brought to Spotify as part of a $100 million deal with Rogan, was used to peddling unproven therapies for treating Covid-19 and discouraging vaccination to over 11 million listeners.
Choosing to remove Young's music instead of dropping Rogan, Spotify then sparked a wave of outrage from both music fans and the overall community — celebrities like Joni Mitchell and india.arie also pulled their music from the platform.
That momentum continued to build as Rogan's past use of the n-word in multiple episodes resurfaced.
As many as 19% of all Spotify users either canceled or said they plan to cancel their accounts in protest.
On Sunday, Spotify Chief Executive Daniel Ek sent employees a memo saying he was "deeply sorry" for how the controversy "continues to impact each of you" but does not feel that "silencing Joe is the answer."
Spotify has, however, removed around 70 podcast episodes after more videos of him using a racial slur started surfacing on social media.
Does Rumble Have The Money? It Just Might
Founded by Pavlovski in 2013, Rumble started out as a conservative and "anti-Big Tech" answer to YouTube.
The site started growing fast in the aftermath of President Donald Trump's election and, by 2021, had nearly 32 million daily users.
Late last year, Rumble announced plans to go public through a SPAC known as CF Acquisition VI.
At the time, the company's valuation was pegged at $2.1 billion. Past investors also include PayPal founder Peter Thiel and conservative venture capitalist JD Vance.
Under the guise of free speech and "anti-censorship," Rumble promotes videos questioning the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines and features conservative figures like Dinesh D'Souza and Sean Hannity.
