After two years of boycott, rocker Neil Young is bringing his music back to Spotify.
Young retired his catalog in 2022 after lamenting the spread of medical misinformation on popular Spotify podcasts like “The Joe Rogan Experience.” Young's decision prompted a few other artists, including Joni Mitchell and India.Arie, to do the same.
“I first learned about this issue when reading that more than 200 doctors had joined forces, taking on the dangerous, life-threatening COVID falsehoods found in Spotify programming,” Young wrote in 2022. “It hit me that he could no longer support the misinformation that threatened the life of Spotify. to the music-loving public.”
In a new statement on his website, Young wrote: “My decision comes as Apple and Amazon services have begun offering the same misinformation podcast features I had opposed on Spotify.”
Last month, Rogan signed a new non-exclusive deal with Spotify, which will allow his podcast to appear on more platforms.
Young said: “I can't just leave Apple and Amazon, like I did with Spotify, because my music would have very little streaming output for music lovers, so I came back to Spotify.”
Young, a strong proponent of high-fidelity audio, said he did so “in the sincere hope that Spotify's sound quality will improve and people will be able to hear and feel all the music the way we made it.”
The singer, who will go on tour with his band Crazy Horse next month, signed off with a deliciously malicious flourish: “I hope all of you, millions of Spotify users, enjoy my songs! Now they will all be there for you, except for the whole sound we created.”
