Covid-19 misinformation debate has permeated the music streaming platform Spotify as well with a fair bit of controversy. The music app is likely to pull down Neil Young's music. This comes a day after Young expressed his objection of Joe Rogan's podcasts, which he said promoted vaccine misinformation.
In an open letter Young had said that he no more wanted his music to be available on Spotify. Interestingly, there has been no word on removing Rogan's podcast from the app, despite the controversy.
Rogan, according to the New York Times as "one of the most consumed media products on the planet". His podcast, the Joe Rogan Experience, was most popular on Spotify in 2021. Rogan signed a $100 million deal in 2020 that gave the Spotify exclusive rights to his show.
"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," Young wrote in an open letter to his manager.
"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."
Hollywood Reporter quoted Spotify official saying that Young's music would be removed from the music streaming app.
"We want all the world's music and audio content to be available to Spotify users. With that comes great responsibility in balancing both safety for listeners and freedom for creators. We have detailed content policies in place and we've removed over 20,000 podcast episodes related to Covid since the start of the pandemic. We regret Neil's decision to remove his music from Spotify, but hope to welcome him back soon," the spokesperson said.
Earlier, over 250 doctors and scientists wrote to Spotify expressing their concern over Covid-19 misinformation peddled by Rogan's podcasts which have been promoting misleading claims on the virus ever since the pandemic began. Rogan on his podcasts has discouraged vaccination among the youth and instead promoted the use of Ivermectin as treatment for Covid-19.
"This is not only a scientific or medical concern; it is a sociological issue of devastating proportions and Spotify is responsible for allowing this activity to thrive on its platform," the doctors said in the letter.
