As of Wednesday, Spotify has removed all of Neil Young’s music after the iconic rocker gave the streaming platform an ultimatum between himself and Joe Rogan, who has been accused of spreading false information about COVID-19 vaccines.
“Losing 60% of worldwide streaming income by leaving SPOTIFY is a very big deal, a costly move, but worth it for our integrity and beliefs,” Young said in a statement posted to his website. “Misinformation about COVID is over the line.”
“We want all the world’s music and audio content to be available to Spotify users,” a Spotify spokesperson stated after choosing to maintain a platform for Joe Rogan and his podcast. “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.”
“I sincerely hope that other artists can make a move, but I can’t really expect that to happen,” Young continued. “I did this because I had no choice in my heart. It is who I am. I am not censoring anyone. I am speaking my own truth.”
Spotify has 318 million monthly listeners around the world, including 172 million who pay for subscriptions. Young had over six million monthly users on the service.
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