Graham Nash, meanwhile, joins the likes of Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and Nils Lofgren in leaving the company due to the podcaster's misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines.
- February 1, 2022
AceShowbiz - India.Arie is another artist to remove her music from Spotify due to Joe Rogan's presence on the platform. While Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and Nils Lofgren left the streaming service because of Rogan's COVID-19 misinformation, Arie cited his "problematic" comments about race as the reason for her departure.
The R&B star made the announcement via Instagram on Monday, January 31. "I have decided to pull my music and podcast from Spotify. Neil Young opened a door that I MUST walk through. I believe in freedom of speech. However, I find Joe Rogan problematic for reasons other than his Covid interviews. For me, it's also his language around race," she declared.
"What I am talking about is RESPECT - who gets it and who doesn't," the Grammy winner further stressed. "Paying musicians a fraction of a penny? And him $100M? This shows the type of company they are and the company that they keep. I'm tired."
Also bidding farewell to Spotify is Graham Nash. "Having heard the Covid disinformation spread by Joe Rogan on Spotify, I completely agree with and support my friend Neil Young and I am requesting that my solo recordings be removed from the service," he said in a statement.
The first to ditch Spotify was Neil Young, who challenged the company to choose between him and Rogan. Days later, Mitchell and Lofgren announced that they're doing the same in solidarity with the husband of Daryl Hannah.
Rogan himself has responded to his "The Joe Rogan Experience" controversy. "These podcasts are very strange because they're just conversations... And oftentimes I have no idea what I'm going to talk about until I sit down and talk to people. And that's why some of my ideas are not that prepared or fleshed out because I'm literally having them in real time," he said.
"But I do my best and they're just conversations, and I think that's also the appeal of the show. It's one of the things that makes it interesting," the comedian went on explaining. "So I want to thank Spotify for being so supportive during this time, and I'm very sorry that this is happening to them and that they're taking so much from it."
