Transfer in opposition to audio streaming firm comes after comic Joe Rogan’s podcast with well being knowledgeable accused of spreading COVID misinformation.
Joni Mitchell stated she is in search of to take away all of her music from Spotify in solidarity with Neil Younger, who ignited a protest in opposition to the streaming service for airing a podcast that featured a determine who has unfold misinformation concerning the coronavirus.
Mitchell, who like Younger is a California-based songwriter who had a lot of her success within the Seventies, is the primary outstanding musician to affix Younger’s effort.
“Irresponsible persons are spreading lies which are costing folks their lives,” Mitchell stated on Friday in a message posted on her web site. “I stand in solidarity with Neil Younger and the worldwide scientific and medical communities on this problem.”
Following Younger’s motion this week, Spotify stated it had insurance policies in place to take away deceptive content material from its platform and has eliminated greater than 20,000 podcast episodes associated to COVID-19 because the begin of the pandemic.
Joe Rogan controversy
However the service has stated nothing about comic Joe Rogan, whose podcast The Joe Rogan Expertise is the centerpiece of the controversy.
Final month Rogan interviewed on his podcast Dr Robert Malone, an infectious illness specialist who has been banned from Twitter for spreading COVID misinformation.
Rogan is among the streaming service’s largest stars with a contract that might earn him greater than $100m.
Younger referred to as on different artists to help him following his motion. Whereas Mitchell, 78, will not be a present hitmaker, the Canadian’s Spotify web page stated she had 3.7 million month-to-month listeners to her music. Her songs Large Yellow Taxi and A Case of You might have each been streamed greater than 100 million instances on the service.
In a message on his web site on Friday, Younger stated “once I left Spotify, I felt higher.
“Personal corporations have the correct to decide on what they revenue from, simply as I can select to not have my music help a platform that disseminates dangerous data,” he wrote. “I’m completely satisfied and proud to face in solidarity with the front-line well being care staff who threat their lives on daily basis to assist others.”
There was no rapid response from Spotify.