Joni Mitchell said Friday she would remove her music from Spotify, joining Neil Young in his protest against the streaming service for its role in providing a platform for disinformation about the Covid-19 vaccine.
Mitchell, an esteemed singer-songwriter of songs like “Big Yellow Taxi,” and whose landmark album “Blue” just celebrated its 50th anniversary, posted a brief statement on her website Friday saying she would be removing her music from the streaming service. “Irresponsible people spread lies that cost people their lives,” she wrote. “I am in solidarity with Neil Young and the worldwide scientific and medical communities on this issue.”
Her statement adds fuel to a small but growing uprising against Spotify, with few major artists speaking out but fans commenting heavily on social media. The debate has also raised questions about the power artists exercise to control the distribution of their work, and the ever thorny issue of freedom of expression online.
Spotify took down Young’s music on Wednesday, two days after he posted an open letter calling for its removal as a protest against “The Joe Rogan Experience”, Spotify’s most popular podcast, which has been criticized for spreading misinformation about it. coronavirus and vaccines.
He did this after a group of hundreds of scientists, professors and public health experts asked Spotify to remove a December 31 episode of Rogan’s show in which Dr. Robert Malone, an infectious disease expert. The scientists wrote in a public letter that the program promoted “several falsehoods about Covid-19 vaccines.”
Mitchell is the first major artist to follow Young, after a few days of speculation and rumors on social media.
Young and Mitchell have a deep history together. Both are Canadians who helped lead the singer-songwriter revolution in Southern California in the late 1960s and 1970s.
On Spotify, Mitchell is listed with 3.7 million monthly listeners, with two of her songs – “Big Yellow Taxi” and “A Case of You” – receiving more than 100 million streams.
While few other major artists have spoken out so far, Young’s attitude has resonated with fans. Twitter was littered with announcements from listeners saying they were canceling their subscriptions, and screenshots of Spotify’s app showed a message from its customer support team stating that it was “getting a lot of contacts, so may be slow to respond.” Spotify has not said how many customers have canceled their subscription.
Tech rivals have also plunged into the controversy, with SiriusXM rebooting a Neil Young channel and Apple Music calling itself “Neil Young’s house.”
In a statement on his website on Friday, Young reiterated his objections to Rogan’s podcast and took a swipe at Spotify’s sound quality. He also said he supported freedom of expression.
“I support freedom of expression. I have never been in favor of censorship,” it reads. “Private companies have a right to choose what they profit from, just as I can choose not to have my music support a platform that spreads malicious information.”