David Crosby and Stephen Stills join Graham Nash and Neil Young in Spotify Boycott
“Until real action is taken to show that a concern for humanity must be balanced with commerce, we don’t want our music on the same platform.”
Image: Michael Putland / Getty
Stephen Stills and David Crosby have announced that they will join Graham Nash and Neil Young’s boycott of the streaming platform Spotify. The move also means all of the four’s collaborative recordings will be taken from the platform, in addition to their individual catalogues.
Graham Nash, India.Arie and Failure pull music from Spotify in Joe Rogan rowIn a joint statement, David Crosby, Graham Nash, and Stephen Stills gave their support for Young, citing the presence of controversial podcaster Joe Rogan on Spotify as the reason for their departure. “We support Neil and we agree with him that there is dangerous disinformation being aired on Spotify’s Joe Rogan podcast,” they wrote.
“While we always value alternate points of view, knowingly spreading disinformation during this global pandemic has deadly consequences. Until real action is taken to show that a concern for humanity must be balanced with commerce, we don’t want our music – or the music we made together – to be on the same platform.”
All of the catalogues recorded by the various combinations of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, as well as their solo catalogues, will be removed from Spotify.
The Joe Rogan Experience has come under fire recently for its hosting of controversial guests. One appearance by Dr Robert Malone, an anti-vaccine virologist, prompted an open letter signed by hundreds of medical professionals to be penned to Spotify, demanding the platform took action.
Several other artists, including Joni Mitchell, India.Arie and Nils Lofgren have joined Young’s boycott of the platform.
In response to the controversy, Spotify has published its content guidelines, and pledged to post a note on content that discusses COVID-19. However, this feature has yet to be introduced.