Artists have decided to remove their works from Spotify, to protest against the distribution of podcasts which would discourage young people from getting vaccinated against covid-19.
Neil Young is an American-Canadian singer who has had great success and is still followed by a large audience. When he was a child, he was affected by a disease, poliomyelitis, which partially paralyzed him during his youth. He kept the scars. Polio epidemics have fortunately ceased thanks to global vaccination. This left its mark on Neil Young and explains what just happened…
Music and podcasts
Like countless artists, Neil Young entrusts the distribution of his music, among others, to the music platform Spotify. This remunerates him (pays), according to the number of plays of his songs. Around 60% of Neil Young’s streaming revenue comes from Spotify.
Last week, the singer protested against certain content released by Spotify. It’s not about music, but about podcasts published by an American, Joe Rogan. The singer believes that these podcasts discourage young people from getting vaccinated against covid-19 and support the use of banned covid treatments. In December, 270 physicians, doctors and professors had already demanded that Spotify stop broadcasting these daily podcasts. It must be said that we are talking about the No. 1 in podcast listening last year!
At first, the founder and boss of Spotify, the Swede Daniel Ek, refused. He felt he had no responsibility for the content of what his platform broadcasts: “We also have rappers (…) And we don’t tell them what to put in their songs. ”
Quitter Spotify?
As nothing changed, Neil Young announced that he was removing his music from the platform. “Spotify has become a place for potentially deadly covid misinformation. Lies sold for money “, he said. Another singer, Joni Mitchell, announced that she was doing the same. Subscribers also said that they were leaving Spotify.
On January 30, Daniel Ek tried to calm things down. He announced measures. He intends to remind podcast creators of what is “acceptable”. And as an introduction to the podcasts that talk about covid-19, it will offer links to sites with sourced scientific information (from which we know the source). Will this satisfy everyone?
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