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“Joe Rogan or I”: Neil Young wants to remove all his songs from Spotify. What good does that do? Answers to the most important questions.
What is Neil Young protesting against? The Canadian musician accuses Spotify of playing down the corona virus and spreading conspiracy theories. Young asked the streaming platform to remove the podcast by the controversial but very popular US comedian Joe Rogan. Otherwise, he pulls all the songs from Spotify. The platform chose Rogan.
Legend:
Young vs. Rogan. He likes to discuss the pandemic in his podcast “The Joe Rogan Experience” and advised, for example, that young people do not need vaccination.
Keystone/AP
Is this the beginning of a fundamental discussion? “It’s already up and running,” says SRF digital expert Jürg Tschirren. A group of 270 scientists and health experts had previously written to Spotify in an open letter demanding action against Joe Rogan’s podcast. But it’s not just Spotify that’s being criticized, says Tschirren: “Other social media platforms have also been confronted with this criticism, especially Facebook.”
Is Neil Young’s Spotify Retirement Even Possible? It’s possible, but it’s complicated. Because the music rights do not usually lie with the musicians, but with record companies or even third parties. But Neil Young’s label Warner Music has now got behind him and asked Spotify to take Young’s music off the platform.
Can it become a problem for a streaming platform if an artist withdraws his work? If it’s just a single artist, probably not. You decide on a platform because of the artists represented. “But I can hardly imagine that many people are now turning their backs on Spotify just because they can no longer hear Neil Young there,” says SRF digital editor Jürg Tschirren. Especially since many Youngs fans won’t have to rely on streaming to hear his music.
What brings the hustle and bustle Spotify? Spotify hardly needs any additional attention. However, the streaming service hardly entered into the cooperation with Rogan 2020 blindly, says Jürg Tschirren: “Even back then, Joe Rogan and his podcast were known for letting voices far from the mainstream have their say. Spotify accepted that because with Joe Rogan, all of its fans could migrate to the platform.” Around 200 million people listen to Rogan’s podcast every month.
What are streaming platforms like Spotify doing against misinformation about Corona? Spotify itself says it has deleted over 20,000 podcast episodes related to Covid-19. Platforms such as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook have meanwhile deleted a lot of relevant content or provided warnings if the information about Covid-19 is controversial.