BLABBERMOUTH.NET
David Crosby,
Graham Nash and
Stephen Stills have requested that their labels remove their collective recordings from
Spotify. In solidarity with their bandmate
Neil Young, and in support of stopping harmful misinformation about COVID-19, they have decided to remove their records from the streaming platform including the recordings of
CROSBY, STILLS, NASH & YOUNG,
CROSBY, STILLS & NASH and
CROSBY & NASH, as well as
Crosby's and
Stills's solo projects.
Nash has already begun the process to take down his solo recordings.
In a unified statement, the band members commented: "We support
Neil and we agree with him that there is dangerous disinformation being aired on
Spotify's
Joe Rogan podcast. While we always value alternate points of view, knowingly spreading disinformation during this global pandemic has deadly consequences. 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."
Last month,
Neil demanded that his catalog be removed from
Spotify in response to "fake information about vaccines" being "spread" on the platform via
Joe Rogan's podcast,
"The Joe Rogan Experience".
Young delivered an ultimatum, adding, "They can have
Rogan or
Young. Not both."
Spotify announced a few days later that it would pull
Young's music catalog from its platform.
In the days after
Neil had his music from
Spotify removed, a handful of notable artists have pulled their music from the streaming giant, blaming the platform for spreading false information about coronavirus via
Rogan's podcast.
Neil's wife and acclaimed actress
Daryl Hannah took to
Twitter to express criticism for
Rogan's podcast and the eventual choice
Spotify has made regarding
Neil's ultimatum.
Daryl wrote: "sad to see some confuse censorship & free speech with the choice a private company has in deciding what they profit from a podcaster is free to say whatever they want Just as
Neil is free to NOT have his music on a platform that makes $$$ of disinformation that harms folks".
In response,
Rogan promised to "do my best, in the future, to balance things out," while
Spotify said it would add content advisories to podcast episodes with information about COVID-19. In an almost 10-minute-long
Instagram video posted on Monday,
Rogan said he would "try harder to get people with differing opinions on" on his show, which averages 11 million listeners per episode.
"The Joe Rogan Experience" became a
Spotify exclusive in 2020, when
Rogan signed a multi-year exclusive licensing deal with the streaming giant.
Spotify's company's chief executive
Daniel Ek has defended
Rogan in the past, including after an episode that featured the conspiracy theorist
Alex Jones in 2020.
"We want creators to create,"
Ek told
The Financial Times at the time. "It's what they do best. We're not looking to play a role in what they should say."
