Spotify To Pull Neil Young's Music Over His Joe Rogan Ultimatum
Keneci Channel
The music streaming giant is reportedly in the process of removing the Heart of Gold and Harvest Moon singer's songs from their platform after declining to grant his request that Joe Rogan's podcast be pulled from the platform.
“They can have Rogan or Young. Not both,” Young wrote, earlier this week, in an open letter penned to his manager and label asking them to remove his music from Spotify. He claimed the streaming giant is spreading disinformation about coronavirus vaccines through Rogan’s podcast Joe Rogan Experience JRE.
The formal request to remove the music was made Wednesday and could take several hours to take effect across Spotify’s service across the world.
Young has reportedly been in discussions with his label, Warner Music Group Corp.’s Warner Records, and Spotify since he published the letter on his website. The letter has since been removed.
The 76-year-old Canadian-American singer and songwriter has merely 2.4 million followers and over six million monthly listeners on Spotify. Tens of millions listen to JRE monthly.
Far-left extremists in academia and media outlets like CNN have been calling for the de-platforming of Rogan for years without success. The call intensified since the podcaster signed a deal with Spotify in 2020 worth more than $100 million, bringing JRE exclusively to the streaming service.
At least for now, Spotify has rebuffed calls to de-platform Rogan. While the company may simply be making a wise business decision given the popularity of JRE, conservatives and free speech advocates view it as a victory against 'woke cancel culture.'
“We want all the world’s music and audio content to be available to Spotify users," a Spotify spokesman said. "With that comes great responsibility in balancing both safety for listeners and freedom for creators.. We regret Neil’s decision to remove his music from Spotify, but hope to welcome him back soon.”
The streaming giant said it has detailed content policies in place and has removed over 20,000 coronavirus pandemic-related podcast episodes in the past two years.
Rogan invites guests across the ideological spectrum to his show, and let's them share their views on a variety of topics and issues of the day.
Clips of his interviews with scientists and doctors discussing the coronavirus pandemic often go viral online and have elicited reactions from government bureaucrats, politicians, and censorship actions by big tech giants like YouTube and Twitter. United States Surgeon-General Dr Vivek Murthy recently suggested in a TV interview, that Spotify should indeed censor Rogan.
Leftists see open conversations on JRE as a threat because they are generally scared of being challenged to defend their dystopian and authoritarian views. Left-wing activists generally favor censorship over debate.
A group of left-wing activists under the guise 'concerned doctors,' recently penned an open letter to Spotify calling for Rogan to be censored. The streaming giant so far appears to be standing behind the podcaster.