Spotify will remove Neil Young music following Joe Rogan dispute

Following outrage over allegations that Joe Rogan is spreading misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine, Spotify has an answer to Neil Young. According to The Wall Street Journal, Young's music is being removed from the streaming service worldwide. As of this writing, his catalog was still available, but we would suggest listening to Harvest one more time.

Young has been in talks with Warner Records and his label since posting an open letter threatening to pull his albums. The artist made a formal request on Wednesday and the music is expected to disappear within a few hours.

In a statement to Engadget, it said it regretted Young's decision and hoped to have him back soon. Since the beginning of the Pandemic, the company has pulled over 20,000 episodes from its website. It didn't say why it was still hosting Joe Rogan Experience episodes that contained misinformation.

There were no reasons for the decision. The company paid over 100 million dollars for a distribution deal with Rogan. The exact terms of the agreement are not clear, but if Rogan's episodes are pulled, it will have financial and legal consequences. Daniel Ek has argued that his firm does not have editorial responsibility.

You can read the whole statement below.

We want all the world’s music and audio content to be available to Spotify users. With that comes great responsibility in balancing both safety for listeners and freedom for creators. We have detailed content policies in place and we’ve removed over 20,000 podcast episodes related to COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic. We regret Neil’s decision to remove his music from Spotify, but hope to welcome him back soon.