Neil Young told Spotify employees that the real problem isn’t Joe Rogan, but the CEO of the company, and urged them to “escape that place before it consumes your soul.” Young made this statement after he pulled his music from Spotify and claimed the company was “spreading fake information about vaccines” through Joe Rogan’s podcast.
Young’s fight against Spotify originally targeted Rogan’s podcast, but has now reached the point of blaming Spotify’s leadership. In an open letter posted on his website, Young says CEO Daniel Ek is “interested in numbers, not art, creativity.”
Young concluded his letter by urging Spotify employees to “be free and choose the right path.” The artist has criticized Spotify for at least the third time in recent weeks. After withdrawing his music from the service, he also faced further criticism, describing the sound quality as “degraded and neutered”.
Joni Mitchell is among those who have withdrawn her music from Spotify. India Arie, on the other hand, pulled her music from the platform, citing her “language about race”. Rogan, on the other hand, stated in a video he published that a racist word he used in his podcast had gone viral and apologized. Spotify has removed 70 episodes of the podcast.
Ek and Spotify seem to be sending mixed messages about how to manage the platform as the event continues to grow. The only thing that is clear is that the company’s podcast goals are largely tied to The Joe Rogan Experience.
While it’s hard to say how much Spotify has its employees, the Rogan incident is known to have clearly caused a lot of tension within Spotify. Therefore, it is not easy to predict for now what kind of response Young’s call will find.
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