Spotify Chooses Joe Rogan Over Neil Young After Egregious Ultimatum
Earlier in the week, a Canadian folk rocker with a penchant for sticking his nose into American culture and politics gave streaming giant Spotify an ultimatum: Either cancel immensely popular podcaster Joe Rogan, or pull Neil Young’s music from the platform.
Young, whose nosiness in matters not of his own was forever enshrined in Lynyrd Skynyrd’s seminal hit “Sweet Home Alabama”, told his own streaming service that Joe Rogan’s “misinformation” was enough to make him want to leave the platform. Young appeared to believe that he had enough clout to make Spotify blink.
Spotify Technology is removing Neil Young’s music, as the folk-rock star isn’t wavering in his objections to Joe Rogan’s podcast.
The “Heart of Gold” and “Harvest Moon” singer earlier this week penned an open letter to his manager and label asking them to remove his music from the service, saying it is spreading fake information about COVID-19 vaccines through Mr. Rogan’s show. “They can have Rogan or Young. Not both,” he wrote.
Spotify was unapologetic.
“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 said. The company has detailed content policies in place and has removed over 20,000 Covid-related podcast episodes since the start of the pandemic, he added.
Advertisement - story continues below“We regret Neil’s decision to remove his music from Spotify, but hope to welcome him back soon,” he said.
Rogan’s allegedly controversial “misinformation”, (which is literally a set of two-way conversations being misconstrued to manufacture some faux outrage), has been defended by Spotify several times in recent weeks, often with a reminder about the First Amendment included.
