Neil Young is encouraging a mass exodus of Spotify employees following his highly publicized debate with the streaming service.
The musician requested his catalog be removed from Spotify late last month and cited the spread of vaccine misinformation on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast as the reason for his departure. He prefaced his new letter, posted Monday (Feb. 7) on his Neil Young Archives website, by writing, “In our communication age, misinformation is the problem. Ditch the misinformers. Find a good clean place to support with your monthly checks. You have the real power. Use it.”
And he encouraged Spotify employees to do just that: Ditch the misinformers — or at least, the platform still hosting them. And he shifted the focus away from Rogan and onto Spotify CEO Daniel EK. “To the workers at SPOTIFY, I say Daniel Ek is your big problem – not Joe Rogan. Ek pulls the strings. Get out of that place before it eats up your soul,” he advised. “The only goals stated by EK are about numbers – not art, not creativity.”
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Ek weighed in on the controversy surrounding Rogan, whose reputation has been further marred after multiple videos of him saying the N-word during his popular podcast resurfaced. As a result, approximately 70 episodes of the Joe Rogan Experience were removed from Spotify. But in a letter sent to Spotify employees, Ek argued why he was still keeping Rogan and his podcast on the platform. “I do not believe that silencing Joe is the answer. We should have clear lines around content and take action when they are cross, but canceling voices is a slippery slope,” he wrote.
Young has led his own exodus of artists from Spotify, including Joni Mitchell, India.Arie and more. “To the musicians and creators in the world, I say this: You must be able to find a better place than SPOTIFY to be the home of your art,” he wrote. The singer-songwriter has also encouraged music fans to stop using the streamer by claiming Spotify reduces the quality of its music and anyone who still supports it has a hand in “destroying an art form.”
Toward the end of the open letter, the 76-year-old musician also highlighted how “EK never mentions the Medical Professionals who started this conversation.” Earlier in January, a group of 270 doctors, scientists, professors and other medical professionals also expressed concern over Rogan’s platforming of misinformation around COVID-19. In an open letter to Spotify, the signees asked the streaming service to implement a misinformation policy as a means of combating claims made by Rogan and his guests. Among other comments, they noted that Rogan has discouraged young people from receiving the vaccine, incorrectly claimed that mRNA vaccines are “gene therapy,” and promoted the use of ivermectin to treat COVID-19, contrary to FDA warnings against using the drug to treat the virus.
While Spotify exclusively licenses the Joe Rogan Experience in a multi-year deal said to be in the ballpark of $100 million, a Canadian right-wing platform called The Rumble offered the controversial podcaster that exact amount to leave Spotify and join them on Monday.
Young ended the letter by saying, “Then be free and take the good path.”