Young published an open letter on his website on Monday, February 7th, criticizing Spotify CEO Daniel Ek’s handling of the criticism to Covid’s disinformation and racism on Joe Rogan’s popular podcast The Joe Rogan Experience.
“To Spotify employees, I say Daniel Ek is your biggest problem – not Joe Rogan,” the 76-year-old singer tweeted, adding that “Ek pulls the strings.”
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“Get out of here before it eats your soul,” he continued. Ek’s only stated objectives are based on numbers, not art or creativity. It’s worth noting that Ek makes no mention of the medical professionals who initiated the discussion. Take a look at Ek’s words one last time.”
Young also brought up the issue of climate change, urging people to “leave the firms that are contributing to Earth’s vast fossil fuel destruction.”
He specifically mentioned Chase, Citi, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo, urging people to “move your money out of these American institutions today.”
In an open letter to Spotify on December 31, 2021, over 250 doctors and scientists stated that Rogan’s program “has a disturbing history of spreading falsehoods, particularly regarding the Covid-19 pandemic.”
As a result, Young issued an ultimatum to Spotify, demanding that the Swedish firm delete all of his music in exchange for a lucrative $100 million (£73.8 million) exclusivity deal for Rogan’s content.
Young’s anti-Spotify stance provoked a musical backlash, with artists such as Joni Mitchell, Crazy Horse guitarist Nils Lofgren, and rock combo Crosby, Stills, and Nash demanding that Spotify delete their music catalogs “in solidarity” with Young.
Young asked other musicians to join him in boycotting Spotify in a letter uploaded to his website NYA Times-Contrarian on Monday, writing: “You must be able to find a better location than Spotify to be the home of your creativity.”
In a blog post last week, Ek addressed the Covid disinformation situation without mentioning Rogan, providing the company’s internal content control policy and announcing the company’s plan to add Covid advisory labels to pertinent content.
On 1 February, artist India Arie announced her departure from Spotify due of Rogan’s “language about racism.”
She didn’t say what she was talking about at the time, but later clarified her position with an edited montage of video that showed Rogan uttering the N-word at least 22 times.
Since then, the podcaster has made a video on Instagram expressing his “sincerest apologies” for using the slur and attempting to explain why he did so.
Meanwhile, following celebrity backlash, Spotify secretly pulled more than 110 episodes of Joe Rogan’s program.
Rogan’s use of the racist epithet was also addressed in a late-night message from Ek to Spotify workers, in which he criticized Rogan’s remarks but noted that “silencing Joe is not the answer.”
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