Spotify pulls Neil Young's music after his ultimatum regarding Joe Rogan and 'fake information'

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Washington Post

Spotify is in the process of removing Neil Young’s music two days after Young posted a letter on his website demanding that his catalogue be removed in response to the “fake information about vaccines” on the platform. “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,” a Spotify spokesman told The Washington Post in a statement.

“We have detailed content policies in place and we’ve removed over 20,000 podcast episodes related to covid-19 since the start of the pandemic. We regret Neil’s decision to remove his music from Spotify, but hope to welcome him back soon.” Young’s letter, which has since been deleted, was addressed to his manager and an executive at his record label and cited Joe Rogan by name as part of his issue with Spotify.

“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,” he wrote in the letter, according to Rolling Stone. “Please act on this immediately today and keep me informed of the time schedule.”

“I want you to let Spotify know immediately TODAY that I want all my music off their platform,” the letter continued. “They can have Rogan or Young. Not both.” Representatives for Young have not yet responded to The Post’s request for comment. Rogan, who hosts one of the most popular podcasts on the platform, has repeatedly spread misinformation about the coronavirus vaccines. In April, for example, he came under fire for suggesting healthy, young people shouldn’t get vaccinated.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/01/26/neil-young-spotify-joe-rogan/

---

Full headline: Spotify pulls Neil Young’s music after his ultimatum regarding Joe Rogan and ‘fake information about vaccines’

Good for Young pushing for this.

[LoisB]

1. Interesting.

[SouthernDem4ever]

2. guess I'll never use Spotify

[rurallib]

3. Spotify makes their morality choice public - money over public good

Gee, what a surprise.

[BluesRunTheGame]

4. I'd been thinking about trying Spotify but now I'll have to pass.

Choosing Rogan over Neil Young is a deal breaker.

[jimfields33]

5. One is their number one person

The other? Not sure.

In two years when virus is done, I wonder what young will do.

[BumRushDaShow]

7. There are many subscription streaming services

like Pandora and even Apple's.

I prefer to buy my own records, cds, or digital music but do have a sub to SiriusXM radio, where he even had his own "limited run" channel there over the holidays (this past December) - https://blog.siriusxm.com/neil-young-radio/

It's not like his music was only on Spotify.

[yardwork]

11. Rogan is pushing a lot of other ugly things.

I may have to drop my Spotify subscription.

[Wuddles440]

24. Cancelling mine tomorrow!

[Skittles]

41. one is a sick piece of utter shit

who is PUSHING MISINFORMATION THAT AFFECTS PUBLIC HEALTH

[orangecrush]

42. This

[AllaN01Bear]

6. guess they dont want to hear the truth.

[George II]

8. That's good. Glad he pushed it and they gave in.

[niyad]

34. If I understand correctly, they chose rogan over young.

[George II]

35. Yes they did, but it's terrible PR and will have an overall negative impact.

[Busterscruggs]

9. He could have also

Said he was going to donate all Spotify proceeds to a covid relief fund to help those affected

[Bernardo de La Paz]

36. No. Then Spotify would PROFIT from both Rogan and Young. He forced them to choose. . . . nt

[Fullduplexxx]

10. Bye bye spotify

[OhZone]

12. I guess my car pool friend is on to something -

he says he has ALL his music physically on his phone, like on a terabyte card.

[Pobeka]

20. This is actually better for the climate too.

It takes more energy to transfer data from the internet to a device, than to have the data on a memory chip directly in the device.

[BumRushDaShow]

21. LOL

As I have upgraded iPhones over the years, I have moved my music from phone to phone (I don't like doing "cloud" ). I even converted most of my cds and even records to mp3s and stored them, so since I rarely use the phone "as a phone", I use it more as an mp3 player (or iPod) and for texts/quick internet searches.

[IronLionZion]

27. I have both

I spent years building up a collection of classics. Streaming is fine for new stuff

[CurtEastPoint]

13. There is not any online way to communicate to them. Fuck'em.

[Fullduplexxx]

15. Tweet a direct message to @SpotifyCares

[AZLD4Candidate]

29. Sure they "care." Never used it, never thought much of it

[TNNurse]

14. Never tried Spotify, now I am glad.

[ShazzieB]

25. Same here!

[IronLionZion]

16. I hope Spotify will remember, that Neil Young don't need them around anyhow

[Strelnikov_]

18. Good one n/t

[whopis01]

50. LOL - that's good. n/t

[iluvtennis]

17. Bravo to Neil Young on this stance! n/t

[nattyice]

19. Hoping other artists follow suit. Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters, Guns N Roses, heck, even Taylor Swift

People can still enjoy the KISS catalog there.

[70sEraVet]

31. That may be the way to go.

Let the other artists know that they should have Neil's back. They should remove THEIR music, and stand in solidarity with Neil!

[The Grand Illuminist]

22. What does Hipgnosis think?

They do own 50% of Neil's songs.

[Ford_Prefect]

32. I suspect he's someone they would not want to disagree with.

[BlueIdaho]

26. God forbid

They pull that lying son of a bitch Rogan off their service. That would have been too decent, too patriotic, too public service, and too Terms of Service for those cowards.

[IronLionZion]

28. But there's a warnin' sign on the road ahead, There's a lot of people sayin' we'd be better off dead

Don't feel like Satan, but I am to them
So I try to forget it any way I can
… Keep on rockin' in the free world

[GB_RN]

30. Neil Young's Music Obviously Didn't Make Much $$ For Them...

Whereas Rogan does. Poor moral and ethical choice, but it was the bottom line, shareholder value choice.

The question from here is, will subscribers who value ethics and morals vote with their wallets?

[Richard D]

33. I wonder . . .

. . if there are enough sane people left to have a painful boycott against Spotify.

[The Unmitigated Gall]

37. Hello, Bandcamp.

[SunImp]

52. Lots of good unknown music on there

[RainCaster]

38. Let's see other labels do the same

Spotify needs to have artists popular with the younger generations do this. We care about Neil Young, Gen Z doesn't. They love the bullshit from Joe Rogaine.

[ancianita]

39. Probably nothing but the business choice of the Rogan demographic over Young's.

[live love laugh]

40. Note to self: choose another music stream at work. ✔️

[Kittycatkat]

43. Just deleted spotify. Using amazon music that was included in my Prime acct anyway.

[czarjak]

44. Money over matter. Someone's making a killing.

[BootinUp]

45. I dont use spotify, it was installed by default on windows OS. Gone now

just uninstalled it.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

46. Tbh, don't know what Spotify is...I was right not to give a shit about online profiteers all along.

[BumRushDaShow]

47. Subscription-based internet streaming "radio" (music, news, public affairs, etc) service

[Alexander Of Assyria]

49. Thank you. Like Apple Music, have that on iPad..don't use it tho.

[palustris]

48. Canceled my subscription today.

[FranklinsTower]

51. Same here

[The Grand Illuminist]

53. I can assume

there is a comparison for Neil Young to a Pete Seeger.

[TexasBushwhacker]

54. Thank you Neil

I just let Spotify know I'm switching to Pandora. How many people have to suffer, and perhaps die, because of Rogan's lies? Bye bye Spotify.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

55. Spotify can KMA.

I'm glad Neil Young spoke out. I love his music.