By far and away the most dramatic story of this week has been legendary singer Neil Young's showdown with Spotify. It all started last weekend when Young released an open letter, threatening to remove his music from Spotify because of their hosting (and multimillion dollar production) of Joe Rogan's hugely popular podcast.
Rogan regularly espouses misinformation including divisive viewpoints on Covid-19 and vaccines. “With an estimated 11 million listeners per episode, (The Joe Rogan Experience), 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" said Young. “I want you to let Spotify know immediately TODAY that I want all my music off their platform … They can have Rogan or Young. Not both.” Neither side backed down, and by Wednesday, Young had pulled his music from the streaming platform, a move backed by figures across the globe including the director general of the World Health Organisation. Via multiple outlets