Neil Young Tells Spotify Workers To Quit
While it’s not out of the ordinary to find Neil Young advocating against a company like Spotify, his beef with the media platform stem back years.
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Neil Young is on a mission to take down the media service goliath, Spotify. Making the infamous Napster/Metallica feud of 2000 pale in comparison to the uproar Neil Young triggered just a few weeks ago, the Down by The River musician is doubling down on his issues with Spotify, coaxing the companies employees to quit. With some fervent and lengthy words penned in his personal blog, the rocker shifts his attention from Joe Rogan–the man behind the kerfuffle–to Spotify CEO Daniel Ek.
As Neil Young continues his crusade against Spotify, the musician turns his attention not only to other musicians and creators using the popular media platform but now even employees. Telling Spotify workers in his blog to get out before it “eats up your soul”, Young cited Daniel Ek as the alleged root of evil, calling him the problem and not Joe Rogan. “You must be able to find a better place than Spotify to be the home of your art.”, Young said following this weekend’s comments made my Ek.
Neil Young’s overwrought comments come just one day after Spotify CEO Daniel Ek spoke out about the recent controversy surrounding the company, Joe Rogan, and Neil Young. While the initial backlash stemmed from misinformation regarding anti-vaccine conspiracies being shared on the renowned commentator’s Joe Rogan Experience podcast, the heat was ignited when reports of Rogan using racial slurs began resurfacing last week. This weekend, Ek told employees that the company had no intentions of removing Rogan’s podcast.
During the companies town hall meeting, Ek told his staff that while he condemned the slurs used by Rogan, the company would not be silencing him. Stating Spotify had no intentions of removing Joe Rogan’s podcast, the town hall was cited by sources as being very tense. Leading up to the weekend, the only message employees had received from leadership was on Friday, two days after Neil Young pulled his music over alleged misinformation he claims Rogan spread.
As for the response by EK and Spotify as to how the company would address misinformation going forward, Spotify made the announcement that the company going forward will add “content advisory” flags on podcast episodes about the pandemic. Similarly, Joe Rogan has also publicly promised to offer more balance on his show, while making sure to throw in the notion that he was a fan of Neil Young’s music. Likewise, Rogan also released a video apologizing for his past use of the n-word.
As bizarre and relentless as Neil Young’s actions may seem, the behavior is quite normal for the 76-year-old Canadian transplant. As one of the rock legends most ornery and outspoken voices, Young has long been “raging” against the machine. One of Young’s most famous protest songs, “Ohio”, was inspired by a real-life tragedy in 1970 when National Guardsmen fired live ammunition into a crowd of anti-war protestors on the campus of Kent State University. Young also made headlines during Donald Trump’s last campaign for the presidency as he erupted after the party used his music during an event.
While it’s not out of the ordinary to find Neil Young advocating against a company like Spotify, his beef with the media platform stem back years. Young had previously removed his music from the streaming site seven years ago. Complaining it offered listeners the worst quality of music in broadcasting, the music eventually returned to the platform. However, in the ongoing battle, Young brought the notion up once more directing his fans to other streaming services that present his music in high def.
