When 270 concerned figures, including scientists, professors and public health experts, called on the streaming service Spotify "to immediately establish a clear and public policy to moderate misinformation on its platform," some people took note.
But when musicians started to remove their music from Spotify, it became a huge story, attracting the attention of those who'd missed the scientists' call.
Spotify has long had a troubled relationship with stars. Here's some of that history, and a look at the main players involved in this current saga.
Neil Young was the first cab off the rank
In a since-deleted letter published online and addressed to his manager and a Warner executive, Canadian guitarist, singer and songwriter Neil Young gave Spotify an ultimatum: Get rid of its top-rated podcaster, Joe Rogan, or remove his music.
"They can have Rogan or Young. Not both," Young wrote.
Young accused Rogan of spreading misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines via his top-rated podcast The Joe Rogan Experience.
Young's music was swiftly removed from the platform, although some of his biggest hits like Heart of Gold and Harvest Moon can still be found on Spotify via the Eat, Pray, Love soundtrack.
Music from bands he was part of, including Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Buffalo Springfield and Crazy Horse, is still available.
Without mentioning Young or Rogan, Spotify's chief executive Daniel Ek responded by saying the big tech company would start adding content advisories before podcasts discussing COVID-19, which would direct listeners to a dedicated hub containing information from "trusted sources".
But he said Spotify would not become a "content censor".
"Personally, there are plenty of individuals and views on Spotify that I disagree with strongly," he wrote.
Young contracted polio at the age of five, before a vaccine was available, an experience recounted in his autobiography Waging Heavy Peace.
He was later vaccinated against it, as he documented on his website in November last year in a post encouraging people to get a COVID-19 vaccine.
Young is taking a personal hit from the revolt, saying the site had accounted for 60 per cent of the streaming of his music to listeners around the world.
He had more than 6 million monthly listeners on the site.
He's now encouraging his fans to listen to his music on a rival streaming service.
Who else is taking action?
Joni Mitchell has also asked for her music to be removed from Spotify, although songs by the nine-time Grammy award winner and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer can currently still be streamed there, including her hit Big Yellow Taxi.
Nils Lofgren, a guitarist for Bruce Springsteen and a frequent collaborator with Young, said he had already had the past 27 years of his music removed.
"We encourage all musicians, artists and music lovers everywhere to stand with us and cut ties with Spotify," Lofgren wrote in a statement.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex also relayed their concerns but will continue to work with the platform.
Prince Harry and his wife Meghan signed a deal with Spotify in 2020, reportedly worth $US25 million, but have so far only released one podcast episode under their Archewell Audio banner.
What's the controversy over Joe Rogan?
Comedian, UFC commentator and podcaster Joe Rogan responded to criticism that his podcast promoted virus misinformation by saying he would try to book doctors with different opinions right after talking to "the controversial ones."
Rogan, who has previously said he's "not an anti-vaxx person", has been criticised for featuring an infectious disease specialist who has been banned from Twitter for spreading COVID-19 misinformation, Dr Robert Malone.
He's also come under fire for discouraging healthy young people from getting vaccinated.
"If you're like 21 years old, and you say to me, should I get vaccinated? I'll go, no," he said in an April 2021 episode.
He was criticised, again, for dedicating an episode to discussing ivermectin as a treatment for the disease.
The Joe Rogan Experience is an immensely popular podcast. It draws in an estimated 11 million listeners per episode, and according to Chartable, which publishes podcast analytics, it's number one on Spotify in countries including Australia and the United States.
Spotify signed an exclusive deal with Rogan worth $US100 million ($142 million) to publish the podcast solely on its platform.
Deja vu all over again for Spotify
Last year, when Adele convinced Spotify to change its default setting on albums to play tracks in order rather than shuffling them, Spotify was only too pleased to honour her request.
But Spotify has had a difficult relationship with artists since its inception.
The streaming service proudly boasts that it "transformed music listening forever when it launched in 2008", but artists, particularly struggling ones, have long complained the royalties they get from the streaming giant are insufficient.
Taylor Swift famously removed her music from Spotify in 2014, having previously blamed online sharing for a drastic drop in album sales.
She's back on the site, because Spotify has become too big to ignore.
Artists including Kanye West, Beyonce, and Coldplay have at times delayed releasing their albums on Spotify.
Rapper Jay-Z, with a host of other artists, even started his own streaming service in 2015, TIDAL, which he claimed would be fairer to artists by paying them properly.
But TIDAL has failed to threaten Spotify's stronghold on the industry as intended, and was later acquired by a Norwegian company.
With 381 million users, Spotify remains the world's most popular streaming service.
Editor's note February 16, 2022: This story has been amended to clarify that not all of the signatories of the open letter to Spotify were medical professionals or scientists.
