Joni Mitchell says she wants to follow Neil Young and have her music removed from the streaming service Spotify. The New York Times writes:
Mitchell, an esteemed singer-songwriter of songs like “Big Yellow Taxi,” and whose landmark album “Blue” just had its 50th anniversary, posted a brief statement on her website Friday saying that she would remove her music from the streaming service. “Irresponsible people are spreading lies that are costing people their lives,” she wrote. “I stand in solidarity with Neil Young and the global scientific and medical communities on this issue.”
The revolt by the two rock artists is over comments on Spotify by Joe Rogan, the podcaster who broadcasts misinformation about Covid-19. Rogan signed a licensing deal with Spotify in 2020 for more than $100 million, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Here’s more context from Billboard:
Mitchell’s note was accompanied by a link to the open letter published earlier this month by a group of 270 doctors, scientists, professors and other medical professionals expressing concern over Rogan’s platforming of misinformation around COVID-19. In the letter, the signees asked Spotify to implement a misinformation policy as a means of combatting claims made by Rogan and his guests. Among other comments, they noted that Rogan has discouraged young people from receiving the vaccine, incorrectly claimed that mRNA vaccines are “gene therapy” and promoted the use of ivermectin to treat COVID-19, contrary to FDA warnings against using the drug to treat the virus.
The Los Angeles Times writes of Young’s and Mitchell’s parallel careers.
Mitchell, this year’s MusiCares Person of the Year honoree, is one of folk and rock’s most beloved songwriters, with a vast catalog that includes some of popular music’s most acclaimed albums, such as 1971’s “Blue,” which Rolling Stone deemed the third-best LP of all time.
Mitchell’s and Young’s careers, which began in Canada in the ‘60s and continued in the L.A. folk-rock scene of the ‘70s, are deeply intertwined, with songs such as “The Circle Game” and “Sweet Joni” inspired by each other. Both are signed to Reprise, an imprint of Warner Music.