You may notice some iconic songs missing from your playlists. A number of notable artists have removed their music off of the major streaming platform, Spotify.
Spotify has been in the throes of controversy since the famous artist Neil Young forced the country’s largest streaming service to choose between him and the popular podcast host, Joe Rogan. Joe Rogan has a $100 million contract deal with Spotify who has exclusive rights to his show, “The Joe Rogan Experience”. In the past two years, Joe Rogan has been repeatedly sharing and providing a platform for misinformation on Covid-19 and vaccines to his audience and Spotify has failed to take action against it.
Neil Young demanded last week that his music be removed from the service over the ongoing controversy. Most known for his songs “Harvest Moon” and “Heart if Gold”. The musician stated “(Spotify) can have Rogan or Young. Not both,” in a letter written to Spotify Jan. 24th. On Jan. 26th Spotify said it had agreed to remove Young’s music.
In stance with Young, friend and musician Joni Mitchell decided to also remove her music from the platform. The Canadian artist is famous for many songs and her most notable album “Blue” which is held in high regard and thought of as one of the greatest albums of all time.
This movement was then followed by other artists including India.Arie, Nils Lofgren and Young’s former bandmates David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash.
After the backlash, Spotify announced that it would add content advisories to any podcast episodes discussing Covid-19. In response to Spotify’s announcement, Rogan defended himself in a video posted to Instagram but he promised to “try harder” to offer more balance on his show, which is estimated to reach 11 million listeners each episode.