In today’s culture, artists and content creators are serious and vocal with their political views and opinions. Influencers and people alike are learning to take a stand against policies, people, and corporations they don’t like. Most recently, artists on Spotify have been fighting against Joe Rogan and his podcast.    

It started with Neil Young, a Canadian artist most famously from Buffalo Springfield, as well as a band called Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. According to Ashley King, Young came across an open letter to Spotify from 12,270 medical professionals, asking Spotify to institute a misinformation policy. In the letter, they specifically mentioned episode #1757 of Rogan’s podcast. 

On Jan. 24, Young called attention to this letter, writing his own to Spotify on his website the Neil Young Archives. 

“It detailed an open letter to Spotify Technology SA, SPOT 9.18% published earlier in January, from teachers, scientists and medical professionals urging the streaming giant to address what they deemed false information about Covid-19 vaccines on Joe Rogan’s podcast.”

Young decided to write his own letter to Spotify, asking his record label and management to remove his music from the platform immediately. Two days later, Spotify obliged and took down his music.

“For most of the week after Mr. Young’s ultimatum, it didn’t feel like a crisis at Spotify, said people inside the company.” reported Steele and Jurgensen. But when Young’s peers joined in on the boycott, things changed.

Joni Mitchell, Nils Lofgren, Inda Arie, Graham Nash, Failure, David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and CSN (Crosby, Stills, and Nash), all removed their music from Spotify in solidarity. After that, Spotify was quick to respond.  “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.” Spotify said in a written statement.

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek sent a letter to Spotify’s employees apologizing for the Rogan controversy, yet, stating that he did “not believe that silencing Joe is the answer.”

Ek informed his employees that Spotify has been talking to Rogan about the content of his show, and his use of racial slurs. After Rogan’s apology, Ek and Rogan decided to move the episodes in hopes of protecting their most popular podcaster.

Since then, Spotify has removed over 20,000 COVID-19 related podcast episodes, and 70 episodes of the Joe Rogan podcast. They have also created a COVID-19 information hub, in which Spotify will begin tagging COVID-19 related content with an advisory, pointing users to health and science information. 

In response, Young is urging Spotify employees to quit their jobs. He posted a statement on his website, urging people to “ditch the misinformers.”

“To the workers at Spotify, I say Daniel Ek is your big problem—not Joe Rogan,” he stated. “Ek pulls the strings. Get out of that place before it eats up your soul. The only goals stated by Ek are about numbers—not art, not creativity.”

Young’s call to action emphasizes the dramatically increasing stand that artists, and many young people, are taking against huge corporations. People are no longer standing by corporations when they make mistakes. Activists like Young are discovering they have more power to change things for the better. Controversies like this show that artists and content creators alike are taking a more active role in combating  misinformation.

Photo courtesy of Jonathan Velasquez