Neil Young (and others) took a principled stand, Spotify did not

The world looked up when Canadian musician Neil Young gave music platform Spotify an ultimatum. Mr. Young is a reasonably heavy hitter in music circles, and has never been one to hide his political views. 

So, of course, when he complained about Spotify's continued hosting of far-right darling Joe Rogan's podcast, with its inflammatory dog whistle politics and repeated misinformation about COVID vaccines, it came as no surprise that he would put his money where his mouth is. "I want all my music off their platform ... they can have Rogan or Young. Not both.", he told them (in spite of the fact that Spotify represents about 60% of his streaming income). In case that was not clear enough, he elaborated further on his own website: "Lies [are] being sold for money". Fellow Canadian Joni Mitchell joined him a few days later, as did the popular Canadian music podcaster Vish Khanna, and many users have cancelled their Spotify accounts in solidarity.

Problem is, Spotify makes a whole lot more money off Joe Rogan than it does off Neil Young (and Joni Mitchell and Vish Khanna combined). It is rumoured that the streaming service has sunk some $100 million into The Joe Rogan Experience podcast. So, given that they are clearly not willing to take a principled stance, they have called Young's bluff and he has taken his music off the platform. Although originally a music-only outlet (albeit a contentious one, with many artists complaining of being underpaid for their products), Spotify has been getting heavily into the more lucrative podcast market in recent years, and the music scene is likely to be increasingly short-changed.

But with great power comes great responsibility, and I'm not sure Spotify are willing to accept that responsibility. They say they have policed and yanked thousands of other podcasts with iffy content, but they are clearly not willing to do that with Joe Rogan (other than some vague promises about "content advisories" on episodes dealing with COVID) because ... well, because money.

Many Spotify users have also complained about the service's anti-democratic moves, but it is in such a dominant position it is not clear how much effect that will have. Maybe a mass boycott is called for. If it's any consolation, Spotify has lost $2 billion off their market value as a result of the dispute.