Neil Young has gotten his wish and Spotify is in the process of removing his music from its streaming platform.
Earlier this week, in an open letter to his management and record label, he explained, “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. Please act on this immediately today and keep me informed of the time schedule...
“I want you to let Spotify know immediately TODAY that I want all my music off their platform. They can have [Joe] Rogan or Young. Not both,” referring to vaccine misinformation that Rogan has stated on his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience.
Commenting on developments since he posted that letter, Neil writes in a column titled "In the Name of Truth," "Most of the listeners hearing the unfactual, misleading and false COVID information on Spotify are 24 years old, impressionable and easy to swing to the wrong side of the truth.
"These young people believe Spotify would never present grossly unfactual information. They unfortunately are wrong. I knew I had to try to point that out...
"Before I told my friends at Warner Brothers about my desire to leave the Spotify platform, I was reminded by my own legal forces that contractually I did not have the control of my music to do that...
"I want to thank...Warner Brothers-Reprise Records for standing with me in my decision to pull all my music from Spotify...losing 60% of my worldwide streaming income in the name of Truth...
"I sincerely hope that other artists and record companies will move off the Spotify platform and stop supporting Spotify's deadly misinformation about COVID."
And Spotify has released a statement regarding its decision to honor Young's wishes:
"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 since the start of the pandemic. We regret Neil’s decision to remove his music from Spotify, but hope to welcome him back soon.”
And of course Neil also took a parting shot at Spotify's audio quality. "Here is an upside for my listeners, people who may be listening to the 60 years of music I have made in my life so far. It is this: Many other platforms, Amazon, Apple, and Qobuz, to name a few, present my music today in all its high-resolution glory -- the way it is intended to be heard -- while unfortunately Spotify continues to peddle the lowest quality in music reproduction. So much for art. But now that is in the past for me. Soon my music will live on in a better place."