(John Ransom, Headline USA) Despite widespread reporting that Neil Young has abandoned Spotify over its refusal to censor views that the old Canadian rocker doesn’t agree with, some of Young’s song catalogue remains on the music and podcast platform.
“It appears some of Neil Young’s music has quietly stayed at Spotify, after the rocker announced last month that he was removing his catalog from the streaming platform,” according to Fox News.
Young told his managers last month that he wanted his music removed from the platform, after Spotify star, podcaster Joe Rogan hosted Dr. Robert Malone, a COVID realist, on a podcast episode.
Young accused Rogan and Malone of killing people with COVID misinformation.
Surely this is some sort of mistake. Certainly, a man of integrity like Neil Young wouldn’t have done all of this and actually encouraged Spotify employees to quit their jobs over a mere publicity stunt. https://t.co/nBKLg157jc
— John Hawkins (@johnhawkinsrwn) February 13, 2022
“I want you to let Spotify know immediately TODAY that I want all my music off their platform,” said Young in a now deleted letter, using the third-person Caesarian in referring to himself according to an account by Rolling Stone. “They can have Rogan or Young. Not both.”
Spotify, which paid Rogan $100 million for the exclusive rights to stream the wildly popular “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast, declined to censor Rogan.
“We want all the world’s music and audio content to be available to Spotify users,” said Spotify, according to the BBC. “With that comes great responsibility in balancing both safety for listeners and freedom for creators.”
The BBC noted that this is not the first time Spotify has refused to censor Rogan.
“We want creators to create,” Spotify chief executive Daniel Ek said previously. “It’s what they do best. We’re not looking to play a role in what they should say.”
To some extent, however, Young has been shielded from any financial consequences by the move to de-platform off of Spotify.
Last year, Young, 76, sold 50 percent of his song catalogue to music investment company Hipgnosis for $150 million.
“The deal comprises Young’s entire song catalogue of 1,180 compositions, with Hipgnosis taking on 50% of the worldwide copyright and income from the catalogue,” said the UK’s Guardian.
And with a $150 million retirement fund, Neil Young should remember: He doesn’t need Spotify anyhow.
