How Spotify beat the artist boycotts

Taylor Swift, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and Thom Yorke have all pulled their music from the streaming giant. Eventually, all of them gave up.

Ellen Pierson-Hagger

Apr 20, 2024 – 5.51am

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In January 2022, I felt hopeful. Neil Young and Joni Mitchell had pulled their extensive back catalogues from Spotify after the influential podcaster Joe Rogan spread vaccine misinformation on the streaming platform.

On The Joe Rogan Experience, one of the world’s most popular podcasts, then hosted exclusively on Spotify, Rogan promoted baseless conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 vaccine. Young, who had polio as a child and has long been a proponent of vaccination, would not allow his music to sit alongside such misinformation. “They can have Rogan or Young. Not both,” the musician said.

New Statesman