Spotify Will Remove Neil Young’s Music After He Slams Joe Rogan for COVID Misinformation

Spotify is granting Neil Young’s wish and removing the singer-songwriter’s music from the platform, the company revealed Wednesday (Jan. 26).

On Monday, Young published an open letter requesting that his catalog be pulled from Spotify, citing the spread of vaccine misinformation on the popular Joe Rogan Experience podcast as the cause. “They can have Rogan or Young. Not both,” Young wrote in the letter, which was addressed to his manager as well as the co-chairman and COO of Warner Records, which releases Young’s music through its Reprise Records imprint.

Rolling Stone was first to report on Young’s letter, which has since been deleted.

“We want all the world’s music and audio content to be available to Spotify users,” said a Spotify spokesperson in a statement sent to Billboard. “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. We regret Neil’s decision to remove his music from Spotify, but hope to welcome him back soon.”

Young’s manager and a Warner Records representative did not immediately respond to Billboard’s request for comment.

In his letter, Young cited the enormous reach and influence of Rogan’s podcast in making his demand, writing, “With an estimated 11 million listeners per episode, JRE, which is hosted exclusively on 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.”

This story is developing.