Spotify Removes Neil Young’s Music Amid COVID 'Misinformation' Feud

Spotify is set to remove Neil Young's music following an ultimatum the music legend made earlier this week.

On Monday, the singer-songwriter slammed the streaming service, accusing it of allowing the spread of COVID misinformation by hosting Joe Rogan's podcast, while also stating “they can have Rogan or Young. Not both”.

Spotify has now announced it will be removing Young’s music and the singer has issued a statement in response via his website, which you can read below.

I want to thank my partners for standing with me.

My deal with Merck Mercuriadis and HIPGNOSIS began on January 1, 2021. The company HIPGNOSIS now has part of my publishing and I am very happy with their support. I want to personally thank Merck and HIPGNOSIS for standing with me, Losing 60% of worldwide streaming income by leaving SPOTIFY is a very big deal, a costly move, but worth it for our integrity and beliefs. Misinformation about COVID is over the line.

My good friends at WARNER BROTHERS – REPRISE also stand by me and I love them for it. Misinformation about COVID cannot be accepted. I sincerely hope that other artists can make a move, but I can’t really expect that to happen. I did this because I had no choice in my heart. It is who I am. I am not censoring anyone. I am speaking my own truth. I know Daniel Ek who owns SPOTIFY, a private business. I like Daniel. I wish he had not taken the steps he has taken because it stopped my music from being shared on his SPOTIFY platform. It stopped us from working together to spread the music. But we are still friends.

Warner and Hipgnosis, my great partners, are standing with me to help stop the flow of misinformation from SPOTIFY. Thanks so much to all of you. We did what we had to do.

Love Earth

Be well

Neil

Back in 2015, Young had his music temporarily pulled from various streaming services, including Spotify, over concerns that audio quality was too low.

His latest album, Barn, came out in December.