Why has Neil Young's music been removed from Spotify?

His discography started to disappear from the streaming platform today (January 27) and is currently down to just a handful of songs – including a feature on a track from the soundtrack to Bright.

It comes after Neil Young issued an ultimatum to Spotify – to choose between his music or Joe Rogan.

Accusing the podcaster of spreading Covid misinformation, Young wrote that the streaming platform could ‘have Rogan or Young. Not both’.

Spotify said it ‘regrets’ the move and hopes that his music will return to the platform ‘soon’.

In a post on his website yesterday (January 26), Young thanked his record label Warner Brothers-owned Reprise Records for backing his decision.

He wrote: ‘Spotify represents 60 per cent of all the streaming of my music to listeners around the world, almost every record I have ever released is available – my life’s music – a huge loss for my record label to absorb.

‘Yet me friends at Warner Brothers Reprise stood with me.’

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Spotify said it aimed to balance ‘both safety for listeners and freedom for creators’.

‘We want all the world’s music and audio content to be available to Spotify users,’ the company said in a statement shared by US media outlets.

‘With that comes great responsibility in balancing both safety for listeners and freedom for creators.

‘We have detailed content policies in place and we’ve removed over 20,000 podcast episodes related to Covid since the start of the pandemic.

‘We regret Neil’s decision to remove his music from Spotify, but hope to welcome him back soon.’

The Joe Rogan Experience was acquired by Spotify in 2020, reportedly for more than 100 million dollars (£77m).

Stand-up comedian Rogan has previously attracted controversy for suggesting the young and healthy should not get vaccinated.

The 54-year-old contracted the virus in September of last year.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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