Spotify jumps 11% as streaming giant responds to Joe Rogan controversy with advisory on podcasts discussing COVID-19

• Spotify shares climbed 11% Monday after the company addressed the controversy around COVID-19 info and Joe Rogan's podcast.
• The company will add an advisory to any podcast episode on its platform that discusses coronavirus and vaccines.

Spotify shares surged Monday as the audio streaming company said it will add an advisory to content containing discussions about COVID-19, a response to criticism that "The Joe Rogan Experience" program was spreading misinformation about the virus.

An advisory on any podcast episode on its platform that includes coronavirus discussion will direct listeners to a resource hub featuring up-to-date information shared by scientists, physicians, and other healthcare authorities, the company said in a statement Sunday.

The stock soared 11% to $192.16 and was set to outstrip daily average volume of 1.49 million shares. The stock was on course to recover last week's 12% drop that was jumpstarted by musician Neil Young's call for Spotify to remove his music from the platform in protest of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation on comedian Joe Rogan's podcast.

Musicians Joni Mitchell and Nils Lofgren, a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, also moved to pull their music from Spotify.

"This new effort to combat misinformation will roll out to countries around the world in the coming days," Spotify co-founder and CEO Daniel Ek said in a statement.

In one flashpoint, an episode of "The Joe Rogan Experience" earlier this month featured Robert Malone, a doctor who said mask-wearing had induced something called "mass formation psychosis," and that people were "hypnotized" into believing facts about COVID-19.

"Based on the feedback over the last several weeks, it's become clear to me that we have an obligation to do more to provide balance and access to widely-accepted information from the medical and scientific communities guiding us through this unprecedented time," said Ek.

Rogan apologized to Spotify in a nearly 10-minute video on Instagram for "taking so much heat" over the controversy.

"I will do my best to try to balance out these more controversial viewpoints with other people's perspectives so we can maybe find a better point of view," said Rogan.

Spotify paid an estimated $100 million to license "The Joe Rogan Experience," and it's been the top podcast on the platform every month since joining in September 2020, according to an internal Spotify document reviewed by Insider.

Ahead of Monday's session, Spotify shares had lost 26% so far this year in part as the wider technology sector has been hammered by investors preparing for a fast pace of rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.