Joni Mitchell has joined Neil Young in removing her music from Spotify in protest against their promotion of Joe Rogan’s vaccine-sceptic views.
The singer, 78, said she was standing ‘in solidarity’ with Young who this week demanded Spotify take down his songs unless the platform agrees to stop carrying The Joe Rogan Experience podcast.
The Big Yellow Taxi hitmaker said the streaming giant was allowing ‘irresponsible people’ to spread lies that were ‘costing people their lives’.
You don’t know what you’ve got til its gone: Joni Mitchell has joined Neil Young in removing her music from Spotify in protest against their promotion of Joe Rogan’s vaccine-sceptic views
The singer, 78, said she was standing ‘in solidarity’ with Young (pictured) who this week demanded Spotify take down his songs
Mitchell also shared an open letter signed by a coalition of medical professionals calling on Spotify to take action against ‘mass-misinformation events’ occurring on its platform.
‘I’ve decided to remove all my music from Spotify,’ Mitchell said in a statement on her official website.
‘Irresponsible people are spreading lies that are costing people their lives.
‘I stand in solidarity with Neil Young and the global scientific and medical communities on this issue.’
The open letter made reference to a specific episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, released on December 31 2021 in which ‘baseless conspiracy theories’ were promoted.
‘By allowing the propagation of false and societally harmful assertions, Spotify is enabling its hosted media to damage public trust in scientific research and sow doubt in the credibility of data-driven guidance offered by medical professionals,’ the letter said.
Spotify acquired The Joe Rogan Experience podcast in 2020, reportedly for more than 100 million dollars (£77million)
‘This is not only a scientific or medical concern; it is a sociological issue of devastating proportions and Spotify is responsible for allowing this activity to thrive on its platform.
‘We, the undersigned doctors, nurses, scientists, and educators thus call on Spotify to immediately establish a clear and public policy to moderate misinformation on its platform.’
It comes as Young praised Spotify’s rival Amazon Music and offered his fans four months free on the streaming platform.
The musician said Amazon was ‘leading the pack’ in high quality audio production and encouraged fans to use the service to access his entire catalogue.
The streaming giant said it ‘regretted’ Young’s decision and hoped to welcome him back soon.
Young continued his crusade on Friday, publishing an open letter on his personal website, which opened with the words: ‘When I left SPOTIFY, I felt better.’
The outspoken recording artist alleged that Spotify degrades the quality of sound by 95 per cent so it could carry more content.
‘AMAZON, APPLE MUSIC and Qobuz deliver up to 100% of the music today and it sounds a lot better than the s****y degraded and neutered sound of SPOTIFY,’ Young fumed. ‘If you support SPOTIFY, you are destroying an art form.’
Turning his attention to his row with Rogan over the podcaster’s negative views on COVID vaccination, Young wrote: ‘I support free speech. I have never been in favor of censorship. Private companies have the right to choose what they profit from, just as I can choose not to have my music support a platform that disseminates harmful information.
In response to Young’s ultimatum, Spotify has agreed to remove his songs from its platform, where the singer had 2.4 million followers and over six million monthly listeners.
‘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,’ the streaming company’s representative told Variety.
‘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.’
It comes after Apple Music made a dig at Spotify by bragging that it was ‘the home of Neil Young’.
A day after Spotify announced that it will comply with Young’s demand to remove his records from the sharing platform, Apple Music tweeted on Thursday night: ‘The home of Neil Young. Listen to his entire catalog on Apple Music.’
The tweet featured a link offering access to Young’s ‘artist’ page on Apple Music’s website and a slideshow showcasing the prolific musician’s many album covers.
On Apple Music’s app, the streaming service went out of its way to tout Young’s playlists and albums under the banner ‘We Love Neil.’
Spotify acquired The Joe Rogan Experience podcast in 2020, reportedly for more than 100 million dollars (£77million).
Stand-up comedian Rogan, 54, has previously attracted controversy for suggesting the young and healthy should not get vaccinated.
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