Spotify has decided to remove Neil Young music honouring the musician's request to do so over its relationship with star podcaster Joe Rogan's comments about vaccinations.
Neil Young, the Heart of Gold singer had posted a letter, since deleted, to his management team and record label demanding to remove his music from Spotify, since, Young added, Spotify is spreading fake information about vaccines potentially causing death to those who believe the disinformation being spread by them.
“I want you to let Spotify know immediately TODAY that I want all my music off their platform,” he continued. “They can have [Joe] Rogan or Young. Not both.”
On his podcast, Rogan has made frequent false and inaccurate claims surrounding vaccines and Covid-19. Earlier this month, a group of more than 250 scientists, doctors and nurses penned an open letter to Spotify condemning the streamer for platforming Rogan and calling on Spotify to warn its listeners about misinformation.
The singer reportedly has 6.1 m monthly listeners on Spotify.
Now, the streaming giant said it tried to achieve balance and had removed over 20,000 podcast episodes related to Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic.
"We want all the world's music and audio content to be available to Spotify users," the company said in a statement.
"With that comes great responsibility in balancing both safety for listeners and freedom for creators."
It added: "We regret Neil's decision to remove his music from Spotify, but hope to welcome him back soon."