Spotify removes Neil Young's music upon request over Joe Rogan's COVID misinformation

Advertisement
Spotify removes Neil Young's music upon request over Joe Rogan's COVID misinformation
Neil Young.Joshua Roberts/Reuters
  • Spotify told NBC News that they have agreed with Neil Young's request to remove his songs.
  • The musician wanted to pull all of his music from Spotify over COVID-19 misinformation.
Advertisement

Spotify told NBC News it will remove Neil Young's music following the singer's request.

Earlier this week, Rolling Stone reported that the 76-year old musician wrote a now-deleted open letter on his website addressed to his manager, Frank Gironda, and a Warner Records executive, Tom Corson, demanding that his music be removed from Spotify because "Spotify is spreading false information about vaccines."

Young referenced "The Joe Rogan Experience" specifically as one of the podcasts spreading misinformation about COVID-19.

In a statement to NBC News, a spokesperson for Spotify said that the company has agreed to remove Young's work.

"We want all the world's music and audio content to be available to Spotify users," the statement read. "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-19 since the start of the pandemic."

Advertisement

The spokesperson said Spotify regrets Young's decision but hopes "to welcome him back soon."

Spotify removes Neil Young's music upon request over Joe Rogan's COVID misinformation
"The Joe Rogan Experience" podcast.Vivian Zink/Syfy/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images

"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," Young wrote in the open letter, according to Rolling Stone. "They can have Rogan or Young. Not both."

He continued: "With an estimated 11 million listeners per episode, JRE, which is hosted exclusively on Spotify, is the world's largest podcast and has tremendous influence. Spotify has a responsibility to mitigate the spread of misinformation on its platform, though the company presently has no misinformation policy."

Insider has reached out to representatives for Young and Rogan for comment.

Earlier in the month, 270 doctors, nurses, scientists, and educators also signed an open letter calling on Spotify to mitigate the spread of misinformation on its platform. This followed a controversial interview on Rogan's podcast with Dr. Robert Malone where Malone made false claims that "mass psychosis" caused a "third of the population" to be "hypnotized" into getting vaccinated.

Advertisement

Insider health reporter Gabby Landsverk recently collated six times Joe Rogan promoted COVID-19 misinformation on his podcast.

Young has removed his music from Spotify before in 2015 over the sound quality on the service. In 2019, he told Rolling Stone that he put it back on the platform because it's "where people get music."

{{}}