Joni Mitchell has joined Neil Young in his protest against popular podcaster Joe Rogan by removing her music from Spotify
On Dec. 31, Rogan hosted Dr. Robert Malone, a notorious source of coronavirus misinformation. Malone himself had already been kicked off Twitter
In response, hundreds of medical experts signed an open letter to Spotify voicing concern about the JRE's "history of broadcasting misinformation, particularly regarding the COVID-19 pandemic."
Soon after, folk icon Neil Young ditched Spotify in protest, and he has since been joined by countless other artists including Joni Mitchell; Crosby, Stills & Nash; and India Arie. Arie specifically stated that she would be leaving Spotify in part to Rogan's "language around race".
"While we always value alternate points of view, knowingly spreading disinformation during this global pandemic has deadly consequences," Crosby, Stills & Nash wrote on their Twitter page. "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."
Spotify has been lukewarm in its response to the controversy, failing to either remove Rogan or fully support his claims. Instead, the platform said that it will be adding a disclaimer to the beginning of episodes that include information that contradicts medical consensus.
"We have a critical role to play in supporting creator expression while balancing it with the safety of our users," Daniel Ek, Spotify's chief executive, wrote in a statement. "In that role, it is important to me that we don't take on the position of being content censor while also making sure that there are rules in place and consequences for those who violate them."
For his part, Rogan released a nearly 10-minute long Instagram video addressing the controversy surrounding his show. In the video, Rogan denies spreading misinformation but acknowledges that "absolutely I get things wrong". He supported Spotify's plan to use disclaimers before controversial Podcast episodes and also said he was a "huge fan" of Neil Young and also enjoys Joni Mitchell's work.
"My pledge to you is that I will do my best to try to balance out these more controversial viewpoints with other people's perspectives, so we can maybe find a better point of view," Rogan said.
According to NPR, Spotify claims to have "removed over 20,000 podcast episodes related to COVID since the start of the pandemic." Ek argued that because the platform doesn't instruct Rogan on what to say on his show, Spotify shouldn't be held responsible for the things Rogan says.
On the other hand, analysts point to the $100 million licensing deal and Spotify's efforts to use Rogan to boost its podcast listener base as reasons the company should be held more responsible for Rogan's content than other, less marketed content on the platform.
