“Neil who?” You can imagine the snickering from some quarters of the tech world after rocker Neil Young demanded in a now-deleted post that music-streaming platform Spotify choose between hosting his music or popular podcaster Joe Rogan — whom he accused of spreading COVID-19 misinformation.
Young (with 6 million monthly listeners on Spotify) has many classic albums to his name, but he’s no Taylor Swift (54 million) when it comes to streaming success. When Spotify chose to drop his music by request, it’s likely most users found out by reading the news rather than desperately searching for “Heart of Gold.”
However, it would be a mistake to shrug this off as just another episode in Spotify’s occasional tussle with talent, similar to when Swift removed and reinstated her music on the service or to Young’s temporary boycott in 2015 over its audio quality (which coincided with his promotion of music service Pono).
