Music icon Neil Young recently had his discography removed from Spotify’s platform, as a way to protest Joe Rogan’s spread of Covid misinformation on his podcast The Joe Rogan Experience. After Young gave Spotify an ultimatum, the company decided to remove Young and keep Rogan.
“They can have Rogan or Young. Not both.”
Neil Young
The controversy surrounding the situations comes from the conversation of free speech vs silencing the voice of people who share dangerous lies. Young would set the record straight on his motive behind pulling his music. He would go on to say “I have never been in favor of censorship. Private companies have the right to choose what they profit from, just as I can choose not to have my music support a platform that disseminates harmful information…”
Rogan is a huge money maker for Spotify as he brings in around 11 million listeners per episode of his podcast. Spotify recently gave Rogan a multi year 100 million dollar deal to exclusively air his podcast. It’s obvious why Spotify opted to keep Joe Rogan and allow Neil Young to leave the platform.
Fellow musician Joni Mitchell has joined Neil Young and had her music removed from Spotify as well. In a statement made addressing the situation Mitchell stated, “Irresponsible people are spreading lies that are costing people their lives. I stand in solidarity with Neil Young and the global scientific and medical communities on this issue.”
Singer and songwriter Peter Frampton chimed in on twitter by tweeting “Good for you Neil. I’ve always been an Apple guy for streaming. No Joe Rogan for me thank you!” Although the artists protesting Rogan are notable names, they are not pulling the same amount of listeners that the Joe Rogan Experience does. So their protesting will most likely be unsuccessful at silencing Joe Rogan and his comments on Covid-19.
The efforts put forward by people like Neil Young haven’t been a complete failure. Recently Spotify’s CEO Daniel Ek has released a statement concerning the spread of misinformation on the platform. He stated “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.” As well as releasing this statement Spotify has announced that they will be adding an advisory label to any podcast that talks about Covid 19, in order to let people know that they are not necessarily factual.