Legendary rocker Neil Young is speaking out against a leading music streaming company and could try to pull his music from the platform.
What Happened: Neil Young shared that he is unhappy with Spotify Technology SPOT in an open letter, as reported by Rolling Stone. The displeasure of the "Southern Man" performer is due to Spotify being the exclusive home of Joe Rogan’s podcast, which has been accused of sharing COVID-19 misinformation.
Young said he did not want to share a platform with Rogan. “They can have (Joe) Rogan or Young. Not both,” the musician said in his letter. "I want to let Spotify know immediately TODAY that I want all my music off their platform," he added.
Young said he penned the letter because of his concern about “fake information about vaccines” being spread by Spotify and Rogan that could cause death.
Young’s manager Frank Gironda confirmed the authenticity of the since deleted letter.
“It’s something that’s really important to Neil,” Gironda said. “He’s very upset about this disinformation. We’re trying to figure this out right now.”
Related Link: Spotfiy Shutting Down In-House Studio, Focusing On Partner Content: What Investors Should Know
Why It’s Important: Young is the latest to raise objections to the Rogan podcast, which has featured several doctors and scientists over the last few months who have different opinions than the country's mainstream medical community.
An open letter signed by over 1,000 scientists and medical professionals called on Spotify to implement a “misinformation policy” due to Rogan’s “false and societally harmful assertions.”
The letter said Rogan is discouraging young people from getting COVID-19 vaccines and promoting unproven treatments instead.
Previous Disagreement: Young previously lashed out at Spotify in 2015 over low audio quality, which led the rocker to release his own streaming service, which is no longer operating.
For what it’s worth, Young has over six million monthly listeners on Spotify, which likely pales in comparison to the number of people who tune into Rogan’s podcast.
The multiple calls for Spotify to take action against The Joe Rogan Experience podcast could force the company to make a statement or change its policies.
Price Action: SPOT shares are down over 6% to $181.73 on Tuesday, trading near the bottom of the company’s 52-week range of $177.07 to $387.44.
Photo: Courtesy of Ross on Flickr
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