

The decline was widely attributed to the Neil Young controversy even though the cause-effect wasn’t as clearcut as the popular narrative would have us believe. #DeleteSpotify began trending as customers (we don’t know how many) ditched Spotify. Robert Malone had been condemned widely by physicians. Spotify was cast as a villain for siding with Rogan, whose December interview with vaccine skeptic Dr. Young, who had more than 6 million monthly Spotify listeners, was hailed as a hero and brave tilter of windmills for taking a stand although he was also accused of being a censorious person. Please act on this immediately today and keep me informed of the time schedule.”īy January 26, Spotify responded by dropping Neil Young’s music and keeping Joe Rogan’s podcast. I am doing this because Spotify is spreading fake information about vaccines - potentially causing death to those who believe the disinformation being spread by them.

“They can have Rogan or Young,” he wrote in an open letter on his website (which he later deleted). Young angrily demanded that his record label and management team take Young’s music off Spotify unless Spotify dropped Joe Rogan’s content. The Joe Rogan Experience has been accused of spreading misinformation about the coronavirus and vaccines. So when, on January 24, he criticized Spotify for hosting the controversial podcast The Joe Rogan Experience, no one who knows what Neil Young stands for was surprised. He’s built a loyal following through his music and a personal brand that embodies the hippie idealism and social consciousness of the 1960s. He was the 11th-highest paid musician in 2021, pulling down $78 million as a result of selling half his song catalog to Hipgnosis. At age 78, he keeps cranking out new music and taking care of business. Neil Young is both an artist (whose work I admire deeply and listen to often) and a multimillion-dollar brand. Case in point: Neil Young versus Spotify. When your brand takes a stand, brace for impact.

Neil Young, Spotify, and the Perils of Taking a Stand
