The musician asked Spotify to pull his music from the platform in an open letter that he shared in January 2022, challenging the company to choose between him and Joe, who had been accused of spreading misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines.
- Mar 14, 2024
AceShowbiz - Neil Young has made his return on Spotify. More than two years after leaving the streaming service due to Joe Rogan's misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines, the "For What It's Worth" singer announced that fans can now listen to his on the platform.
Spotify, the #1 streamer of low res music in the world - Spotify, where you get less quality than we made, will now be home of my music again," he declared on Tuesday, March 12 in a post shared on his website. "My decision comes as music services Apple and Amazon have started serving the same disinformation podcast features I had opposed at SPOTIFY."
"I cannot just leave Apple and Amazon, like I did Spotify, because my music would have very little streaming outlet to music lovers at all, so I have returned to Spotify, in sincere hopes that Spotify sound quality will improve and people will be able to hear and feel all the music as we made it," he continued. "Qobuz and Tidal, where my music is presented, are all High res as well."
"I hope all you millions of Spotify users enjoy my songs!" Neil stated. "They will now all be there for you except for the full sound we created."
Neil asked Spotify to pull his music from the platform in an open letter that he shared in January 2022. In the letter, he challenged the company to choose between him and Joe, who had been accused of spreading misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines.
"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," the Canadian-American crooner argued. "They can have Rogan or Young. Not both."
Two days later, Spotify confirmed that it had started removing Neil's songs. In a statement, the company said, "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."
"We have detailed content policies in place and we've removed over 20,000 podcast episodes related to Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic," the message added. "We regret Neil's decision to remove his music from Spotify, but hope to welcome him back soon."
