Neil Young wants his music pulled unless Spotify bans Joe Rogan’s vaccine misinformation

“They can have (Joe) Rogan or Young,” Neil Young wrote in a since deleted letter to his manager, an executive at his label Warner Music and Spotify. “Not both.”

“I am doing this because Spotify is spreading fake information about vaccines – potentially causing death to those who believe the disinformation being spread by them,” Young wrote on his site. “Please act on this immediately today and keep me informed of the time schedule.”

“I want you to let Spotify know immediately TODAY that I want all my music off their platform,” he continued. “They can have [Joe] Rogan or Young. Not both.”

Young is reacting to vaccine misinformation spread by comedian and Spotify-exclusive podcaster Joe Rogan. 270 doctors and scientists recently signed an open letter asking the streamer to stop Rogan and his guests from continuing to make baseless claims about vaccines.

“With an estimated 11 million listeners per episode, JRE, which is hosted exclusively on Spotify, is the world’s largest podcast and has tremendous influence,” Young wrote. “Spotify has a responsibility to mitigate the spread of misinformation on its platform, though the company presently has no misinformation policy.”

“It’s something that’s really important to Neil,” Young’s manager Frank Gironda told the Daily Beast. “He’s very upset about this disinformation… We’re trying to figure this out right now.”

As of Tuesday morning Spotify and Warner Music have not responded to Young’s demand.

Bruce Houghton is Founder and Editor of Hypebot and MusicThinkTank and serves as a Senior Advisor to Bandsintown which acquired both publications in 2019. He is the Founder and President of the Skyline Artists Agency and a professor for the Berklee College Of Music.