Spotify has agreed to Neil Young‘s demand to remove his music from the platform in protest against Covid vaccine misinformation spread by podcaster Joe Rogan on the streaming service.
“They can have Rogan or Young. Not both,” Young wrote in a letter to his management team and record label on Monday.
“We want all the world’s music and audio content to be available to Spotify users,” a Spotify spokesperson said in a statement issued to the media. “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.”
“We regret Neil’s decision to remove his music from Spotify, but hope to welcome him back soon,” the audio streaming and media services provider added.
In response, Young thanked his publisher Hipgnosis and his label Warner Records/Reprise for supporting his request.
“Warner and Hipgnosis, my great partners, are standing with me to help stop the flow of misinformation from SPOTIFY. Thanks so much to all of you. We did what we had to do,” Young said in a statement posted on his official website.
Subsequently, Young made it clear that the dispute between him and the company was not personal.
“I did this because I had no choice in my heart. It is who I am. I am not censoring anyone. I am speaking my own truth,” Young said. “I know Daniel Ek who owns SPOTIFY, a private business. I like Daniel. I wish he had not taken the steps he has taken because it stopped my music from being shared on his SPOTIFY platform.”
It stopped us from working together to spread the music,” he added.
“But we are still friends.”
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