CSNY reunites in spat with popular streaming platform
David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash have joined on-and-off collaborator Neil Young in removing their music from Spotify over the music streaming giant’s refusal to remove podcast host Joe Rogan’s program from the platform. The comedian and actor, whose podcast is one of Spotify’s most popular, has been criticized for spreading coronavirus misinformation.
Young made headlines when he issued an ultimatum. “They can have Rogan or Young. Not both,” Young wrote in a letter to his management, according to Rolling Stone. Young’s music has since been removed from Spotify.
Since cementing their supergroup status in 1969’s Déjà Vu and a performance at Woodstock, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young have often been at odds between sporadic reunions. The quartet is standing united, though, in protest of Spotify.
— Stephen Stills Official (@Stephen__Stills) February 2, 2022
“In solidarity with their bandmate, Neil Young, and in support of stopping harmful misinformation about COVID, they have decided to remove their records from the streaming platform including the recordings of CSNY, CSN, and CN, as well as Crosby’s and Stills’ solo projects. Nash has already begun the process to take down his solo recordings,” the group wrote in a joint statement sent to NPR. “We support Neil and we agree with him that there is dangerous disinformation being aired on Spotify’s Joe Rogan podcast. 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.”
Other artists, including Joni Mitchell, have also removed their music from Spotify in recent days, with others such as India Arie threatening to do the same.