After Neil Young, Joni Mitchell also removes all of her music from Spotify because she believes that there is excessive misinformation about Covid on the platform. There are “irresponsible people spreading lies that are costing people’s lives,” the Canadian singer said in a post on her official website.
Last Monday Neil Young said that the streaming platform must choose him or the podcaster Joe Rogan, accused of spreading false information about Covid. Joni Mitchell said she sympathizes with Neil Young, and with the “global medical and scientific communities.” The two have been friends for many years and are both survivors of the polio they contracted in the early 1950s, not long before a vaccine was available.
Unlike Young, Mitchell did not name Rogan, but referred to an open letter signed by a group of scientists and medical professionals, criticizing Spotify for hosting Rogan’s podcast, Joe Rogan Experience. The letter accuses Rogan of spreading a number of misleading claims and causing distrust of science and medicine.
Spotify removed Neil Young’s songs from the platform on Wednesday, stating that it hoped for the songwriter to return and announcing that it had “removed over 20,000 Covid-related podcasts since the start of the pandemic.” The Joe Rogan Experience is Spotify’s most popular podcast, with 200 million downloads reported per month. The streaming platform is said to have paid $ 100 million for the rights.
