Spotify to remove Neil Young’s music after artist protests Joe Rogan
Spotify is removing Neil Young’s music after the musician posted — then removed — an open letter with an ultimatum: deal with Joe Rogan’s vaccination disinformation or lose Young’s music.
“We want all the world’s music and audio content to be available to Spotify users. With that comes great responsibility in balancing both safety for listeners and freedom for creators. We have detailed content policies in place and we’ve removed over 20,000 podcast episodes related to COVID since the start of the pandemic. We regret Neil’s decision to remove his music from Spotify, but hope to welcome him back soon,”
“I am doing this because Spotify is spreading fake information about vaccines — potentially causing death to those who believe the disinformation being spread by them. … They can have Rogan or Young. Not both.”
Young claimed he removed his collection because he “could not continue to support Spotify’s life threatening misinformation to the music loving public” in a follow-up letter released on Wednesday.
Many individuals have thanked me for adopting this stand, including health professionals, family members who have lost loved ones to COVID, and those concerned for their own children and families. “a huge loss for [his] record company to absorb,” but that he moved forward with removing his catalog because he “could not continue to support Spotify’s life threatening misinformation to the music loving public.”
Rogan, who broadcasts the Spotify-exclusive podcast The Joe Rogan Experience, has come under fire for regularly misrepresenting COVID vaccinations. Recently, 270 physicians and other medical experts signed a statement asking Spotify to “mitigate the spread of misinformation on its platform” after Rogan included Dr. Robert Malone, a well-known vaccination sceptic who has advocated false hypotheses regarding the COVID vaccines.
Since 2020, Spotify has been the only distributor of Rogan’s programme, which contains COVID disinformation.