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Neil Young releases statement after pulling music from Spotify over COVID stance

Young Vs Rogan
Posted at 2:36 PM, Jan 26, 2022
and last updated 2022-01-26 20:09:46-05

Neil Young thanked his record label for standing with him after he decided to pull his music from Spotify over his stance on COVID-19.

"Before I told my friends at Warner Bros about my desire to leave the SPOTIFY platform, I was reminded by my own legal forces that contractually I did not have the control of my music to do that," Young said.

"I want to thank my truly great and supportive record company Warner Brothers - Reprise Records, for standing with me in my decision to pull all my music from Spotify," he added.

On Tuesday, Young wrote a letter to his managers and record label to remove his music from Spotify because of COVID-19 misinformation from "The Joe Rogan Experience" podcast, which it hosts on the platform.

“They can have [Joe] Rogan or Young. Not both," the 76-year-old rocker said in his now-deleted letter.

Spotify began the process of removing Young's music on Wednesday.

"SPOTIFY has become the home of life threatening COVID misinformation. Lies being sold for money," he said.

In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, the streaming platform said they "have detailed content policies in place and we’ve removed over 20,000 podcast episodes related to COVID since the start of the pandemic."

They added that they "regret Neil’s decision to remove his music from Spotify, but hope to welcome him back soon."

However, it doesn't appear Young will be returning to Spotify. In fact, he's encouraging other artists to remove their music from the platform.

"I sincerely hope that other artists and record companies will move off the SPOTIFY platform and stop supporting SPOTIFY’s deadly misinformation about COVID," he said.