What is the Neil Young-Joe Rogan Spotify controversy?

Over the past week, audio streaming giant Spotify and 76-year-old American-Canadian singer Neil Young were engaged in a dispute over the platform's promotion of vaccine misinformation through podcaster Joe Rogan.

In a letter addressed to his manager, Young, on January 26, gave an ultimatum to Spotify to either remove Rogan's podcasts or his music. “I want you to let Spotify know immediately TODAY that I want all my music off their platform. ... They can have Rogan or Young. Not both," Young wrote in the letter titled 'In The Name of Truth'.

“I am doing this because Spotify is spreading fake information about vaccines - potentially causing death to those who believe the disinformation being spread by them,” he said.

"Spotify has become the home of life-threatening Covid misinformation," he said on his website. "Lies being sold for money," the prolific, legendary singer behind "Heart of Gold" and "Harvest Moon" added.

The platform has since removed his music and said it worked to balance "both safety for listeners and freedom for creators" and had removed more than 20,000 podcast episodes related Covid-19 in accordance with its "detailed content policies."

"We regret Neil's decision to remove his music from Spotify, but hope to welcome him back soon," Spotify said in a statement.

In the wake of the controversy, Rogan apologised to Spotify for the backlash but defended inviting contentious guests. "If I pissed you off, I'm sorry," Rogan said. "I will do my best to try to balance out these more controversial viewpoints with other people's perspectives so we can maybe find a better point of view."

In the wake of Young's exit, Spotify also decided to add a "content advisory to any podcast episode that includes a discussion about Covid-19," its CEO Daniel Ek said in a statement.

Earlier this month, a group of more than 200 professors and public health officials in the US called on Spotify to remove a recent episode featuring Dr Robert Malone, an infectious-disease expert, that included “several falsehoods about Covid-19 vaccines,” according to the experts’ letter.

Young and fellow musician Joni Mitchell cited those complaints when removing their music from Spotify, sparking debate throughout the music industry about what role artists can have in deciding where their music is heard.

Rogan, 54, has discouraged vaccination in young people and promoted the off-label use of the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin to treat the virus.

The podcaster, who has a $100-million multi-year exclusive deal with Spotify, was kept on, and Spotify complied with Young's demand and started removing his catalogue of songs.

(With agency inputs)

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