Like Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and India Arie, Ava DuVernay’s Array is no longer doing business with Spotify.
03.02.2022 - 00:35 / variety.com
Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorOn Wednesday (Feb. 2), nearly a week after Joni Mitchell requested for her music to be removed from Spotify, several of her albums remain available on the streaming service.
On Thursday, Mitchell made the request in solidarity with her longtime friend and collaborator Neil Young as a form of protest against the streaming giant “spreading false information about vaccines — potentially causing death to those who believe the disinformation being spread by them” through its hosting of Joe Rogan’s podcast, as Young wrote.While all of Mitchell’s albums released through Warner Music Group — running from the beginning of her career in the late 1960s up to 1982’s “Wild Things Run Fast,” then picking up again for two albums and a compilation spanning 1994-2000 — have been removed, all of her releases through Universal Music Group remain available to stream on the service. What’s going on? Reps for Mitchell’s management, Universal and Warner all declined or did not respond to Variety‘s multiple requests for comment, but unlike Young’s situation with Warner, Mitchell is listed as the copyright holder on some of her albums remaining on the service, which in addition to “Wild Things” include 1985’s “Dog Eat Dog,” 1988’s “Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm,” 1991’s “Night Ride Home” and her most recent studio album, 2007’s “Shine.” While Universal’s David Geffen company is listed as the copyright holder on the first three of those albums, she is listed in that role on the latter two, with the first distributed by Universal and “Shine” licensed to Hear Music, a joint venture between Starbucks and Concord Music.The issue apparently is not with Universal, which removed its Neil Young albums from Spotify within a few
.Like Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and India Arie, Ava DuVernay’s Array is no longer doing business with Spotify.
Like Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and India Arie, Ava DuVernay’s Array is no longer doing business with Spotify.
Chris Willman Music WriterThe full lineup of exclusive titles for April’s Record Store Day has been announced, with the expected title from official RSD 2022 ambassador Taylor Swift. Her first-time release of a “The Lakes” single leads the way for hundreds of releases that range from a deluxe “Blue Velvet” soundtrack reissue and two John Williams 90th-birthday releases to rarities collections from Joni Mitchell, Lou Reed and David Bowie… and from unreleased jazz concerts by Charles Mingus and Bill Evans to vinyl reissues of albums by Prince, Nicki Minaj, Mariah Carey, Childish Gambino, Stevie Nicks, the Cure, Kacey Musgraves and Pearl Jam.This year’s RSD will be on April 23 — the weekend after Easter, and Tax Day, to lighten the load on religious or business conflicts.
Spotify-exclusive podcast The Joe Rogan Experience this week, both on-stage and during an episode of the podcast itself.Rogan’s podcast recently prompted protest from the likes of Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Graham Nash and Nils Lofgren, with the musicians pulling their catalogues from the streaming platform.Young sparked the exodus late last month, when he requested his music be taken off Spotify, citing the platform “spreading false information about vaccines” and specifically targeting Rogan.It came after hundreds of scientists and medical professionals asked Spotify to address COVID misinformation on its platform, sparked by comments made on Rogan’s podcast – calling the host’s actions “not only objectionable and offensive but also medically and culturally dangerous”.In response, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said that, while the platform wouldn’t be severing ties with the controversial figure, they would be adding content advisories to podcast episodes which discussed COVID-19, directing users to their dedicated information hub.Rogan himself addressed the boycott on Instagram, telling fans: “I don’t always get it right. I will do my best to try to balance out these more controversial viewpoints with other people perspectives so we can maybe find a better point of view.”Shortly after, Rogan found himself embroiled in controversy again when songwriter India.Arie shared a video that compiled instances the podcast host had used the N-word on his podcast.
One of Joe Rogan’s biggest critics, India Arie, said that she doesn’t believe in cancel culture and isn't asking for the podcaster to be censored, despite taking her music off of Spotify’s platform. Rogan is one of the streaming service's biggest stars, with a contract that could earn him more than $100 million. However, Arie joined artists like Neil Young and Joni Mitchell in asking that their music be removed from the platform due to its inclusion of "The Joe Rogan Experience" podcast.
Spotify has taken down 113 episodes of the Joe Rogan Experience after an old clip of him using the 'n-word' resurfaced.
Spotify podcast.Rogan has recently been called out for spreading misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine on his The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, which is exclusive to Spotify. Several high-profile musicians, including Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, have boycotted the platform as a result.When Rogan shared a video addressing the situation, Johnson replied: “Great stuff here, brother.
Mumford & Sons member Winston Marshall has written a piece for Bari Weiss’ Substack criticising artists taking action against Spotify.In the essay entitled ‘When Artists Become the Censors’, Marshall takes aim at those he believes are threatening free speech, including Neil Young, who recently pulled his music from Spotify.On January 24, Young published an open letter – which has since been deleted – expressing his feelings about content like the Joe Rogan Experience podcast “spreading false information about vaccines”. This sparked a wider protest, with the likes of Joni Mitchell and Crazy Horse member Nils Lofgren following suit.“Something resembling a bottom-up authoritarianism has become the norm,” Marshall writes in the essay.
Spotify over comments made on his podcast.Neil Young was the first to pull his music due to Rogan spreading “misinformation” about COVID-19, with Joni Mitchell and Graham Nash following in solidarity.Spotify CEO Daniel Ek responded to the row in an official statement, saying that Spotify would be adding COVID-19 content advisories to all relevant podcast episodes and Rogan himself has publicly addressed the backlash in a post discussing “some of the controversy that’s been going on over the past few days”.Now, Stewart has waded into the row on his own podcast The Problem With Jon Stewart saying artists’ actions towards Rogan were “a mistake”.“There’s no question that there is egregious misinformation that’s purposeful and hateful, and that being moderated is a credit to the platforms that run them,” Stewart said. “But this overreaction to Rogan, I think, is a mistake.”He pointed to an episode of the Joe Rogan Experience in which Rogan argued with Australian media personality Josh Szeps about whether COVID-19 itself or its vaccine was more likely to make patients vulnerable to myocarditis.When the two disagreed, Rogan offered to look it up, and when he was proven wrong he accepted it.As a result, Stewart believed that Rogan was open to other opinions and urged artists not to not “leave, abandon or censor” but instead “engage”.Meanwhile, India.Arie has become one of the latest artists to leave Spotify over Rogan’s “language around race”.
wrote in a “Déjà Vu” statement.“While we always value alternate points of view, knowingly spreading disinformation during this global pandemic has deadly consequences. Until real action is taken to show that a concern for humanity must be balanced with commerce, we don’t want our music—or the music we made together—to be on the same platform.”Young started the trend when he pulled his solo catalog from the streaming service last week in protest of “fake information about vaccines” being spread on the popular “The Joe Rogan Experience.” Joni Michell, a contemporary of the 60s supergroup, followed suit on the heels of Young’s announcement and Nash joined the chorus of musicians requesting to flee the service on Tuesday, calling on Spotify to be “responsible and accountable” for its content.The band’s request applies to music the band released both with and without sometimes-member Young, as well as solo releases from Crosby and Stills, according to a press release.Crosby tweeted last month that removing his catalog might be difficult because he sold his recorded music and publishing rights. Music from CSNY, CSN and Crosby, Nash and Stills was still on Spotify as of Thursday night.Rogan, who has a $100 million deal with the streaming service, addressed accusations on Sunday that his show promoted unsanctioned COVID-19 treatments and claimed that vaccinations were harmful to some.“I’m not trying to promote misinformation.
Spotify said monthly active users rose 18% to 404 million for the fourth quarter of 2021 as premium subscribers hit 183 million and revenue grew 24%. It reported numbers as controversy swirls around Joe Rogan.
Claudia Eller Co-Editor-in-ChiefWhen Neil Young pulled his music from Spotify over the audio streamer’s continued support of Joe Rogan, whom he accused of spreading “misinformation and lies” about COVID via his podcast interviews, there were some nasty “who cares?” tweets directed at the folk-rock icon. But the haters should care that this deadly pandemic has been raging for nearly two years and it ain’t over yet.Young has been adamant for some time that artists shouldn’t be touring because of COVID; he even pulled out of a Farm Aid benefit, a charity he co-founded.
Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorDavid Crosby and Stephen Stills have joined Neil Young and Graham Nash in asking their labels to remove their collective recordings from Spotify.According to the announcement, in support of stopping harmful misinformation about Covid-19 on Joe Rogan’s Spotify-hosted podcast, the musicians have decided to remove their records from the streaming platform including the recordings of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young; Crosby, Stills & Nash and Crosby-Nash, as well as Crosby’s and Stills’ solo projects. Nash has already begun the process to take down his solo recordings.In a unified statement, the band members commented, “We support Neil and we agree with him that there is dangerous disinformation being aired on Spotify’s Joe Rogan podcast. While we always value alternate points of view, knowingly spreading disinformation during this global pandemic has deadly consequences. Until real action is taken to show that a concern for humanity must be balanced with commerce, we don’t want our music – or the music we made together – to be on the same platform.” Reps for Spotify did not immediately respond to Variety‘s request for comment.Following a similar request by Joni Mitchell, the move reunites the five artists, who have been friends and collaborators since the 1960s, in a stance that they certainly could not have imagined 50 years ago.
Neil Young’s former and longtime bandmates Graham Nash and Nils Lofgren, along with singer-songwriter India.Arie, are the latest musicians to join Neil Young and Joni Mitchell in announcing the removal of their songs from Spotify.
Zack Sharf Graham Nash and India Arie are the latest music artists to announce they are following in the footsteps of Neil Young and Joni Mitchell by removing their music from Spotify. Nash said in a statement that he “completely agrees” with his Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young bandmate Neil Young after “having heard the COVID disinformation spread by Joe Rogan on Spotify.” Nash added, “I am requesting that my solo recordings be removed from the service.”While Young, Mitchell and Nash exited Spotify because of Joe Rogan’s podcast spreading COVID misinformation, India Arie noted on Instagram that she is leaving Spotify because of Rogan’s “language about race.”“Neil Young opened a door that I must walk through,” Arie wrote on Instagram.
Joe Rogan is addressing the controversy surrounding his Spotify podcast.
Joe Rogan admitted today that he doesn’t “always get it right” on his podcast and promised to “do better” going forward as Spotify scrambled this weekend to contain the growing backlash to the ex-Fear Factor host’s take on Covid-19 vaccines.
Neil Young has taken a stand against the COVID-19 vaccine misinformation being disseminated on Spotify via “The Joe Rogan Experience”, pulling all his music off the music-streaming service in protest.