Real reason for musician’s Rogan ultimatum

Neil Young told the music streaming giant he did not want to be associated with the platform if it continued to provide access to Rogan’s content. Spotify chose Rogan.

“I want you to let Spotify know immediately TODAY that I want all my music off their platform,” Young wrote to his manager.

“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,” he said in reference to Rogan’s podcast.

“Please act on this immediately today and keep me informed of the time schedule.

“With an estimated 11 million listeners per episode, JRE, which is hosted exclusively by Spotify, is the world’s largest podcast and has tremendous influence.

“Spotify has a responsibility to mitigate the spread of misinformation on its platform, though the company presently has no misinformation policy.

“They can have Rogan or Young. Not both.”

Spotify almost immediately said goodbye to the musician and that it regretted the development and hoped to “welcome him back soon”.

“We want all the world’s music and audio content to be available to Spotify users,” it said in a statement.

“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-19 since the start of the pandemic.”

On Friday, New Zealand-based news director Anna Loren added some much needed context to the story, revealing why vaccines were so important to the music legend.

“The thing … the thing about Neil Young is that he contracted polio as a child in the ‘50s, years before a vaccine was available,” she wrote on Twitter.

“After being released from hospital, he had to relearn how to walk. Polio left him permanently disabled, contributed to a serious anxiety disorder and affects his life to this day.

“Neil also has epilepsy, as does his daughter. His two sons have cerebral palsy. He wrote a whole album, Trans, as a way to communicate with one of them. He & his wife also founded a nonprofit, The Bridge School, for kids w severe disabilities.

“Every year Neil organises a benefit concert for The Bridge School. David Bowie has performed! So have The Beach Boys, Elton John, Metallica, Pearl Jam and the Smashing Pumpkins.

“All of this is to say, if you’re looking for a celeb who knows about the importance of vaccines and who is well-educated in the sphere of health and disability, you can’t do much better than Neil Young.

“I guess Rogan’s fans are louder and angrier and spend more money, and I guess that’s how decisions about the spread of misinformation get made. Our world is poorer for that.”

Young stressed that his fans could still find his music on other platforms, including Amazon, Apple and Qobuz.

And he called on other artists to follow his lead.

“I truly want to thank the many, many people who have reached out to me thanking me for taking this position – people who are health professionals on the front lines, people who have lost loved ones to Covid or who are worried for their own children and families. I have never felt so much love coming from so many,” said Young.

“I sincerely hope that other artists and record companies will move off the Spotify platform and stop supporting Spotify’s deadly misinformation about Covid.”

— with Sam Clench

Originally published as Real reason for Neil Young’s ultimatum to Spotify over Joe Rogan podcast