Neil Young Encourages Artists & Staff To Sever Ties With Spotify

Neil Young and Spotify’s misinformation feud rages on, with the singer this week issuing a plea to artists and employees of the steamer.

With a slew of artists following Young’s lead and pulling their music from Spotify recently, he has issued a statement via his website that once again encourages others to follow.

“To the musicians and creators in the world, I say this: You must be able to find a better place than SPOTIFY to be the home of your art,” Young said.

He also issued a message to the company’s workers, claiming that CEO Daniel Ek is their “biggest problem – not Joe Rogan”.

“Ek pulls the strings. Get out of that place before it eats up your soul. The only goals stated by Ek are about numbers – not art, not creativity,” he said.

“Notice that Ek never mentions the medical professionals who started this conversation. Look, one last time at the statements Ek has made. Then be free and take the good path.”

Young pulled his music from streaming service last month after the platform refused to remove deadly vaccine misinformation via Rogan’s podcast.

The artist’s actions followed an open letter from hundreds of medical professionals, urging Spotify to remove content that contained misinformation, specifically a Rogan podcast episode with Dr. Robert Malone, where the guest made a series of widely disputed claims about the COVID-19 vaccine.

In response, Spotify founder and current CEO Daniel Ek published an open letter, hinting at changes to their content policy, but not mentioning any plans to remove the controversial episode.

Earlier this week, Spotify removed more than 100 Joe Rogan episodes from its platform, although none relating to COVID misinformation it seems.

As Variety reported, numerous episodes were pulled due to language around race, apparently at the host's request following backlash. The current total, according to the JRE Missing site, is over 100, including episodes that featured Marc Maron, Amy Schumer, Kevin Smith, Bill Burr and more.

The ongoing controversy surrounding the Joe Rogan Experience podcast has led to a drop in consumer confidence, with a recent poll revealing that 19% of Spotify users had either cancelled or planned to cancel their service over the COVID misinformation fallout.