Musician Neil Young appears to be following through on his threat to pull his extensive and well-loved sonic catalogue from Spotify. Young took a stand against the company’s relationship with podcaster Joe Rogan this week, accusing Spotify of propagating Covid-19 misinformation through Rogan’s hit show, which Spotify bought exclusive rights to in a deal reportedly worth at least $100 million.
Spotify confirmed Young’s actions in a statement emailed to TechCrunch Wednesday, saying that the company “regret[s] Neil’s decision to remove his music” from the streaming service:
“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.”
The Wall Street Journal first reported that Spotify was “in the process” of removing Young’s music after the musician refused to step away from his previous threats.
Young announced the intention to pull his music in a since-deleted open letter to his management team and label. “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 a letter first reported by Rolling Stone. “Please act on this immediately today and keep me informed of the time schedule.”
This story is developing…
