Bloomberg employees at Parcast, the podcast studio at Spotify Technology SA that specializes in true-crime programming, are calling for more clarity around an annual fund that is intended to promote diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility.
In a letter to management Thursday, the employees said Spotify agreed in an April 2022 union contract to give the group s DEIA committee $100,000 annually to guide, assist and monitor the progress of diversity, parity and inclusion with regard to recruitment, selection, retention, mentorship, advancement and editorial coverage. Spotify has only approved spending of $5,000 a year later, despite union members proposing projects they believed fell under the fund umbrella. They said that management hasn't provided more information about the process for using the money. Meetings with management usually take place quarterly, but sometimes take a long time to schedule.
The union said that we were seriously questioning the commitment to funding this committee, and by extension, the values it represents.
The workers of the Writers Guild of America East are demanding that Spotify management respond to the union's quarterly meeting requests in less than two business days, and that executives provide a written document outlining what projects qualify for DEIA funding. They want to have a step-by-step process for how to propose projects, how they will be approved and how the funds will be dispersed.
They want to keep approved projects moving forward and they want to end back-channel communication, so all information should be shared with all committee members via email.
Spotify said in an email that we had conversations with Parcast's DEIA Committee on the fund. It remains a priority to use the allocated fund in accordance with the committee's goals. Parcast is committed to amplifying untold stories. In February 2022, Spotify announced a $100 million Creator Equity Fund for the licensing, development and marketing of music and audio content from people from historically marginalized groups. It announced funding around the time Neil Young and other artists pulled their music from the platform in protest of Joe Rogan spreading COVID 19 misinformation and a viral montage that documented the star podcaster using a racial epithet. The New York Times reported that Rogan's deal would have cost Spotify $100 million, though the actual number was double that.
In January, the company said that some of the money had gone toward the creation of GLOW, a global music program that is aimed at amplifying LGBTQIA artists and creators.
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