“They can have Rogan or Young. Not both,” read Neil Young’s ultimatum to Spotify on Monday. Today Spotify has chosen Joe Rogan.
The “Down By The River” singer wrote an open letter on his website (which has since been deleted) telling Spotify to remove his iconic catalog of music from their service if they choose to continue to spread fake information about vaccines via the Joe Rogan Experience podcast on their platform. The Wall Street Journal reports that Spotify will not honor Young’s request to pull Rogan and have instead moved forward with the formal request to remove Neil Young’s music from the streaming service starting today.
The Hollywood Reporter received a quote from Spotify on the matter that reads as follows:
“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,” a Spotify spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter.
Considering Spotify made a $100 million deal with Joe Rogan that ensures that The Joe Rogan Experience appears exclusively on the streaming service, it’s clear where their head is at on this matter. What Neil Young has embarked on could very well trigger a wave of other artists following suit, but that remains to be seen.
Neil Young is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
