Artists remove their music from Spotify over the spread of “life-threatening COVID misinformation”

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Musician Neil Young has demanded that his work be removed from Spotify due to the spread of COVID misinformation on the platform. He attributed his decision to one podcast in particular, “The Joe Rogan Experience” (‘JRE’), where the host, Joe Rogan has made numerous false claims about the virus. In a letter posted to his website, Young issued an ultimatum: “[Spotify] can have Rogan or Young. Not both.” The popular streaming service began pulling Young’s music from its site only two days later.

Canadian artist Joni Mitchell has since followed in Young’s footsteps, writing, “I’ve decided to remove all my music from Spotify. Irresponsible people are spreading lies that are costing people their lives. I stand in solidarity with Neil Young and the global scientific and medical communities on this issue.”

San Francisco Chronicle Datebook reported that the streaming platform lost $4 billion in market value following Young and Mitchell’s departure. The public has shared their support for the musicians through the hashtags #DeleteSpotify and #CancelSpotify, which have started trending on Twitter.

Exclusive licensing for JRE were purchased by Spotify in 2020 for $100 million. It is now one of the world’s most popular podcasts with an average of 11 million listeners per episode. Rogan has become infamous for making insensitive comments and promoting baseless scientific theories on the show, most of which relate to the pandemic. In September 2021, he went against the FDA’s advice by advertising ivermectin, an antiparasitic drug, as an appropriate treatment for COVID-19.

Episode 1757, which aired in December, included an interview between Rogan and virologist Dr. Roger Malone. Malone, who was suspended from Twitter for violating their COVID misinformation guidelines one day prior to his feature, was given the opportunity to vocalize his stance on the virus, vaccines, and more. 

In this three-hour conversation, Malone claimed that the public was being “hypnotized” by the government due to “mass formation psychosis”–a phenomenon later proven to be fake. He proceeded to compare the circumstances to the Holocaust and discourage healthy individuals from getting vaccinated. 

Over 270 scientists, healthcare officials, and professors have signed an open letter to Spotify in response to the controversial episode. “The interview has reached many tens of millions of listeners vulnerable to predatory medical misinformation,” they wrote, “Mass-misinformation events of this scale have extraordinarily dangerous ramifications.” ​​

The letter is concluded with a demand that the site “establish a clear and public policy to moderate misinformation” as other major platforms, including Instagram, Twitter, and Youtube, have. 

Spotify’s head of global communications and public relations, Dustee Jenkins, revealed in leaked Slack messages that their team reviewed multiple episodes of the podcast and determined that “they didn’t meet the platform’s threshold for removal”. 

However, when clips of Rogan using racial slurs on JRE surfaced, a website that follows activity on Spotify, JREMissing.com, reported that 70 of its episodes were taken off of the streaming platform. Chief Executive of Spotify, Daniel Ek, revealed that he had spoken to Rogan about the insensitive language previously used on the show. He confirmed that after their discussion, it was the podcast host who chose to have the episodes removed. 

Ek has also since responded to the misinformation controversy. “It is important to me that we don’t take on the position of being content censor while also making sure that there are rules in place and consequences for those who violate them” he stated. Addressing the public’s criticism in a separate note, Ek wrote “I want to make one point very clear–I do not believe silencing Joe is the answer.”

He assured that the platform will still be acting on the feedback they have received, revealing “We’ve heard the criticism and we’re implementing changes to help combat misinformation.” As a part of this plan, Spotify will be adding content advisories at the beginning of podcasts that discuss the pandemic.