Spotify invests in podcast advertising with Chartable, Podsights acquisitions

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Spotify has just announced it bought two major podcast ad tech companies, Chartable and Podsights, to offer more features to its podcast advertisers and podcasters. Podsights will help its advertisers view more detailed information on who clicked on an ad and what actions they took (like buying the product).

As for Chartable, Spotify will offer the company's two promotional tools (SmartLinks and SmartPromos) to its podcasters. SmartLinks offers "shareable, trackable URLs that automatically route listeners to their podcasts." It'll provide data on both podcast clicks and downloads. While SmartPromos lets podcasters see which ads result in the most downloads, allowing them to measure the success of ad campaigns.

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Spotify to label podcasts discussing COVID-19

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Spotify is finally responding to criticism of how it handles the controversial COVID-19 content in the Joe Rogan Experience. The company said it would add COVID-19 content advisories to podcasts, and that advisory will lead to Spotify's COVID-19 hub, hosting credible and up-to-date information about the pandemic.

Spotify has also made public its COVID-19 content policy to improve transparency around the issue's treatment. The Verge got a copy of the policy ahead of the platform's release and wrote about how an internal memo showed that Joe Rogan's podcast didn't "meet the threshold for removal."

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Joni Mitchell wants her song Spotify over COVID-19 misinformation concerns

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Joni Mitchell joins Neil Young in asking her music to be taken off Spotify over worries of COVID-19 misinformation on the streaming service. In a message on her site, the Canadian singer said she stands in solidarity with Young and the "global scientific and medical communities." 

She doesn't cite Joe Rogan, whose popular podcast is a Spotify exclusive, in her desire to pull her music from the service. Instead, she did link an open letter from a group of scientists and medical professionals that criticized Spotify for hosting's The Joe Rogan Experience. The letter accuses Rogan of spreading misleading claims on his show and provoking distrust in medicine and science. The group wanted Spotify to "take action against the mass-misinformation events which continue to occur on its platform."

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Spotify will pull Neil Young's music after Joe Rogan and vaccine misinformation dispute

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Musician Neil Young wanted Spotify to choose between him and its controversial star podcaster Joe Rogan. And it looks like the streaming service chose the latter as it is in the process of removing Young's extensive catalogue from Spotify. The artist made a formal request for its removal on January 26, Wednesday, and by the time you read this, it might no longer be on the platform. 

Young was outraged by what he claims is the platform spreading misinformation about vaccines through podcasters like Rogan, who has episodes on his show containing misinformation, including an interview with Dr. Robert Malone, who claims that "psychosis" led people to believe vaccines were effective.

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