His music, his career, his life have been A hippie’s dream, just like the title of his autobiography released a few years ago. The thing you may not know is that, for a true hippie, there is no big difference between words and deeds, marketing is zero: what you think then you do. And so Neil Young takes his songs off Spotify in controversy with a no vax podcast that the global market-leading streaming platform refused to remove. His profile as an artist is full of “pale” icons, those that indicate songs that can no longer be listened to, his immense discography is reduced to a few appearances in the compilation.
L’attacco a «The Joe Rogan Experience»
It even disappeared Barn, his 41st studio album released in December 2021. He had said it and he did it: old Neil Young, in recent days, had sent a long letter to the former startup founded by Daniel Ek in which he accused her of spreading fake news on vaccines. The podcast is in the sights of the Canadian songwriter The Joe Rogan Experience by tv commentator and comedian Joe Rogan who hosted no vax positions. “Either Rogan or Young, not both,” it read. “I’m doing this because Spotify is spreading false information about vaccines potentially causing the deaths of those who believe that misinformation.”
Spotify says “sorry”
Spotify users are young, “impressionable and easy to put on the wrong side of the truth,” he said. «These young people believe that Spotify would never present grossly unfounded information», he remarked, «unfortunately they are wrong. I knew I had to try to point it out ». Young thanked his record company, Warner Music, as Spotify is responsible for streaming 60% of his music worldwide and the choice to leave the platform was “a huge loss for my record company” . Spotify said it was disappointed in an official note: «We want all the music and audio content in the world to be available to users. Hence a great responsibility in balancing both safety for listeners and freedom for creators. We’ve put in place detailed content rules and removed over 20,000 Covid-related podcast episodes since the start of the pandemic. We regret Neil’s decision to remove his music from Spotify, but we hope to welcome him again soon. ‘
The price of consistency
Neil Young, who also sold 50% of the rights to his songbook to the Hipgnosis fund a year ago, was not the only one to take a stand on the subject, on the other side of the Atlantic. Last month, 270 doctors, scientists and US health professionals had already signed an open letter so that there was more control over the false information around the Covid 19 pandemic. The difference, between him and most of the characters (entire and means) of contemporary shobiz, lies in the ability to go all the way with one’s positions. “It’s so hard for me now,” he sang in 1969, “but I’ll make it somehow, even though I know I’ll never be the same again. Will you ever change your behavior? ” Consistency always comes with a price. He never backed down when it came to paying him. When these giants of contemporary culture leave the scene, we will not be orphans only of their art.
