Neil Young’s Music Returns to Spotify After Boycott Over Joe Rogan, Vaccine ‘Misinformation’

Neil Young poses for a portrait on May 18, 2016. Rich Fury/Invision/AP

Musician Neil Young has ended his two-year boycott of Spotify and returned his music to the Swedish streaming giant, he announced on March 12.

In a statement on his official website, Mr. Young said his decision to return hits such as “Harvest Moon” and “Heart of Gold” to the streamer was in light of Apple and Amazon “serving the same disinformation podcast features” he had opposed at Spotify.

“I cannot just leave Apple and Amazon, like I did Spotify, because my music would have very little streaming outlet to music lovers at all,” the singer said.

The 78-year-old artist added that he “hopes all you millions of Spotify users enjoy my songs,” upon their return to the streaming site.

Mr. Young’s music is now visible and can be played on Spotify.

Spotify agreed to remove Mr. Young’s music in February 2022 after he accused podcaster Joe Rogan of spreading false information about COVID-19 vaccines via his podcast under a multimillion-dollar deal with the platform.

The singer further accused Spotify of “potentially causing death to those who believe the disinformation being spread by them” by allowing Mr. Rogan’s hit podcast, “The Joe Rogan Experience,” to air.

In a lengthy statement on his official website at the time, Mr. Young did not explicitly mention Mr. Rogan but said, “Most of the listeners hearing the unfactual, misleading and false COVID information on Spotify are 24 years old, impressionable and easy to swing to the wrong side of the truth.”

‘Grossly Unfactual Information’

“These young people believe Spotify would never present grossly unfactual information. They unfortunately are wrong. I knew I had to try to point that out,” he wrote.

Mr. Young also called on Spotify employees to quit their jobs while criticizing the music streaming platform’s CEO, Daniel Ek.

Following Mr. Young’s comments, 270 scientists and medical professionals signed a letter urging Spotify to take action against Mr. Rogan, also accusing him of spreading vaccine misinformation on his show.

Mr. Rogan later responded to Mr. Young’s claims as well as those of the medical professionals, stating in a video on Instagram that he was not trying to “promote misinformation” or “be controversial,” and pledged to bring more balance to his show with opinions from a variety of experts.

He also stressed he is neither a doctor nor a scientist.

“These podcasts are very strange because they’re just conversations,” Mr. Rogan said.

Joe Rogan during UFC 274 at Footprint Center in Phoenix, Ariz., on May 7, 2022. Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Rogan Drops Spotify Exclusivity

“Oftentimes I have no idea what I’m going to talk about until I sit down and talk to people. And that’s why some of my ideas are not that prepared or fleshed out because I’m literally having them in real time, but I do my best and they’re just conversations, and I think that’s also the appeal of the show. It’s one of the things that makes it interesting,” the podcast host and former UFC commentator added.

In early February, Rogan, 56, announced that his podcast would no longer only be exclusive to Spotify under a $250 million deal to make it available on multiple platforms, including Apple, YouTube, and Amazon Music.

Mr. Young previously said that Spotify accounted for 60 percent of the streaming of his music to listeners around the world and that the removal from the platform was a “huge loss for my record company to absorb.”

In his statement announcing the return of his music to Spotify, Mr. Young still criticized the platform for providing what he said was “low res” sound quality.

“So I have returned to Spotify, in sincere hopes that Spotify sound quality will improve and people will be able to hear and feel all the music as we made it,” Mr. Young continued.

“They will not all be there for you except for the full sound we created,” the singer said. “Hopefully Spotify will turn to Hi-Res as the answer and serve all the music to everyone. Spotify, you can do it! Really be #1 in all ways. You have the music and the listeners!!!! Start with a limited-res tier and build from there!” Mr. Young concluded.

The Epoch Times has contacted a Spotify spokesperson for comment.