Spotify Has Spent Less Than 10% of Its $100 Million Diversity Fund

  • Fund was still determining priority projects in January
  • Spotify launched the program during an uproar over Joe Rogan
Photographer: Gabby Jones/Bloomberg
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Spotify Technology SA’s $100 million Creator Equity Fund, designed to promote diversity in music and podcasts following controversial comments by the company’s star podcaster Joe Rogan, spent less than 10% of the money on that work as it rounded out its first year.

The initiative got off to a slow start hiring staff and has suffered from shifting priorities, according to people familiar with the effort who asked not be identified discussing an internal matter. At the start of the year, the fund was still finalizing its 2023 budget and had yet to determine its priority projects, according to a memo obtained by Bloomberg News.