Veteran singer-songwriter Neil Young recently urged “other artists and record companies” to “move off the SPOTIFY platform and stop supporting SPOTIFY’s deadly misinformation about COVID.”
Some of his music peers have answered the call.
On Jan. 26, Young made good on his threat to remove his songs from Spotify unless the streaming service agreed to cut ties with controversial podcast host Joe Rogan, who has drawn criticism for fueling conspiracy theories about COVID-19 treatments and vaccines on the wildly popular “Joe Rogan Experience.”
When Spotify failed to drop Rogan, Young pulled the trigger.
“Spotify represents 60% of the streaming of my music to listeners around the world. ... Yet my [record label] stood with me, recognizing the threat the COVID misinformation on SPOTIFY posed to the world — particularly for our young people who think everything they hear on SPOTIFY is true,” Young declared on his website.
“Unfortunately it is not.”
Others have since followed the “Heart of Gold” hitmaker’s lead — most notably singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, 78, who is on the same label as Young, 76, and entered the folk-rock scene around the same time as her contemporary.
The mounting opposition to Spotify has sparked rumors that various big names — from Foo Fighters and Barry Manilow to Prince Harry and the former Meghan Markle — will be the next to walk. But none of that speculation has come to fruition yet.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex released a statement that denounced the “global misinformation crisis” and revealed that they contacted Spotify last year “about the all too real consequences of COVID-19 misinformation on its platform.”
“We have continued to express our concerns to Spotify to ensure changes to its platform are made to help address this public health crisis,” the royal couple added. “We look to Spotify to meet this moment and are committed to continuing our work together as it does.”
Amid rising pressure from musicians, healthcare professionals and Spotify users alike, the head of the streaming giant released a statement Jan. 30 addressing concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic and published the official Spotify rulebook “to help our users understand how Spotify assesses all content on our platform.”
“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 Spotify Chief Executive Daniel Ek.
“We take this seriously and will continue to partner with experts and invest heavily in our platform functionality and product capabilities for the benefit of creators and listeners alike. That doesn’t mean that we always get it right, but we are committed to learning, growing and evolving.”
See who else has renounced Spotify in the wake of Young’s anti-Rogan stand.