“They can have Rogan or Young. Not both.” American-Canadian folk rock star, Neil Young, has called in an open letter for streaming market leader Spotify to remove his music from the platform accused of becoming “a place of potentially deadly disinformation on Covid-19”. A threat that he finally carried out.
At the origin: a successful and maligned podcast
Singer Neil Young left Spotify because of the podcast hosted by 54-year-old Joe Rogan, which was very popular in the United States. The latter forged his reputation on stage and then as a sports commentator before launching “The Joe Rogan Experience” in 2009, a daily podcast in which he invites athletes, politicians, scientists, artists, activists… alert Edward Snowden, the billionaire Elon Musk or even Bernie Sanders have already intervened in this program which can last several hours, explains Telerama.
Spotify has offered itself the exclusivity of this podcast for “100 million dollars in 2020”, specifies Télérama. The price to pay for a program whose each episode is listened to by around 11 million listeners, making Joe Rogan the host of the most listened to podcast in the United States and the first on the platform in 2021. His recipe: controversy and unpredictability. A time supporter of Bernie Sanders, Joe Rogan frequently switches to the side of the reactionary Trumpists.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic, he has often opened the microphone to guests opposed to the Covid-19 vaccine. In mid-January, more than 200 American health professionals sounded the alarm, judging that “The Joe Rogan Experience” presented “a threat to public health”reports the Guardian. Scientists reacted to an episode in which Robert Malone, a virologist who became a distributor of false information about vaccines against Covid-19, was received. In turn, Joe Rogan is accused of discouraging young people from being vaccinated against Covid-19 and of promoting unauthorized treatments whose effectiveness remains to be proven.
The Spark: Neil Young slams the door
In the wake of these alerts, the American-Canadian singer Neil Young, who had 2.4 million subscribers on the platform, was moved by the situation and decided to carry out his threats by withdrawing his long discography from Spotify, January 27. The artist, whose last album was released at the end of 2021, denounces the fact that the platform has become a place where “lies are sold for money”. No need to look for him: his repertoire is no longer available.
On his site (in English)Neil Young explains: “I support freedom of expression and have never been in favor of censorship. Companies can choose what to profit from, like I can choose not to have my music on a platform that disseminates dangerous information. I am happy and proud to work for solidarity with health professionals.”
This position was welcomed by the director general of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. The latter thanked him for being “opposed to misinformation and inaccuracies regarding vaccination against Covid-19”. He also recalled that “Platforms, like the media and individuals, all have a role to play in ending this pandemic and this infodemic”.
Neil Young’s boycott, which called on other artists and record labels to do the same, resonated with Canadian folk singer Joni Mitchell, 78. On January 28, she announced that she, in turn, was removing all of her music from Spotify. “Irresponsible people are spreading lies that are costing people’s lives. I stand in solidarity with Neil Young and the global scientific and medical communities on this issue”explained the singer, who has 3.7 million subscribers on the platform.
The reaction: Spotify is keeping Joe Rogan
By withdrawing from Spotify, Neil Young tried to make the streaming platform face up to its responsibilities. But if she says she regrets the departure of the artist and hopes to welcome him back, the Swedish company has chosen to keep Joe Rogan. Through the voice of a spokesperson, she highlighted the balance between “listener safety and creative freedom”. A choice that makes some specialists wonder about the platform’s real desire to set aside its “business concerns” even if Spotify claims to have “deleted more than 20,000 episodes of Covid-related podcasts since the start of the pandemic”.
In any case, this episode raises many questions about the responsibility of streaming platforms in controlling the content they host. Which divide the experts. For Summer Lopez, director of the “freedom of expression” program of the writers’ defense organization Pen America and interviewed by AFP, Neil Young “is probably one of the only artists who can afford such calls”. For many musicians, Spotify is “essential” to reach their audience and therefore constitutes “a source of income”. She also points out that unlike social networks, a streaming platform is “first designed to disseminate works of art”. “I think the real issue here is that Spotify doesn’t have a clear policy on this”she adds.
For Valerie Wirtschafter, an analyst at the Brookings Institution, interviewed by AFP, tracking down untruths in a podcast, “It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack”. However, she mentions possible solutions to fight against false information, such as moderation messages that could be broadcast before an episode, as well as measures on the platforms’ algorithms to prevent them from “do not amplify harmful content”.