Joe Rogan’s Spotify headache is about to get a lot worse. Neil Young, a musician, declared earlier this week that he would remove his songs off Spotify in protest of the company’s relationship with Joe Rogan, whom it brought under its wing in an exclusive $100 million agreement two years ago. Joni Mitchell declared on her website on Friday that she “stands with Neil Young” and removes her repertoire from the streaming service.
“I’ve chosen to unsubscribe from Spotify and delete all of my music.” “Irresponsible people are propagating misinformations that are claiming the lives of innocent people,” Mitchell wrote. “On this matter, I stand in solidarity with Neil Young and the international scientific and medical community.”
Mitchell’s choice to ditch Spotify in favor of Rogan is likely to raise some heads as one of the world’s most famous and well-respected live musicians. In addition, unlike Young, she had no prior complaints about the service’s stream quality. The Joe Rogan Experience, Rogan’s podcast, is no stranger to controversy. Rogan and a number of his featured guests have openly displayed transphobia in recent years, discouraged his listeners from wearing facemasks to prevent Covid-19 transmission because masks are “for bitches,” and widely propagated vaccination skepticism to his enormous audience.
Rogan’s program is also the world’s most popular podcast, with more than 11 million listeners per episode and many episodes available on Spotify every week. Rogan frequently calls out guests who spread false information without bothering to fact-check their statements. Hundreds of medical professionals signed an open letter blasting Spotify for profiting off putting lives at risk as the pandemic rages on. His decision to host Dr. Robert Malone, a virologist banned from Twitter for spreading misinformation about COVID-19, prompted hundreds of medical professionals to sign an open letter blasting Spotify for profiting off putting lives at risk as the pandemic rages on. Young inspired by the letter to leave the military this week, and Mitchell referenced it in her own statement.
According to the letter, “Dr. Malone exploited the JRE platform to further propagate multiple bogus assertions, including several falsehoods about COVID-19 vaccinations and an erroneous premise that society leaders have ‘hypnotized’ the people.” “Many of these claims have previously been proven false. Dr. Malone is one of two recent JRE guests who made comparisons between pandemic policies and the Holocaust. These activities are not only distasteful and unpleasant, but they are also harmful to one’s health and culture.”
