Joni Mitchell joins Neil Young in demanding Spotify remove her music | Culture

Joni Mitchell says she is in search of to take away all of her music from Spotify in solidarity with Neil Younger, who ignited a protest in opposition to the streaming service for airing a podcast that featured a determine who has unfold misinformation in regards to the coronavirus.

Mitchell, who like Younger is a California-based songwriter who had a lot of her success within the Nineteen Seventies, is the primary distinguished musician to hitch Younger’s effort.

“Irresponsible persons are spreading lies which are costing folks their lives,” Mitchell mentioned Friday in a message posted on her web site. “I stand in solidarity with Neil Younger and the worldwide scientific and medical communities on this situation.”

Following Younger’s motion this week, Spotify mentioned it had insurance policies in place to take away deceptive content material from its platform and has eliminated greater than 20,000 podcast episodes associated to Covid-19 for the reason that begin of the pandemic.

However the service has mentioned nothing about comic Joe Rogan, whose podcast, The Joe Rogan Expertise, is the centrepiece of the controversy. Final month Rogan interviewed on his podcast Dr Robert Malone, an infectious illness specialist who has been banned from Twitter for spreading Covid misinformation.

Rogan is likely one of the streaming service’s greatest stars, with a contract that might earn him greater than $100m.

The World Well being Group chief backed Younger in his dispute, thanking the musician for “standing up in opposition to misinformation and inaccuracies” round Covid vaccinations.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO’s director basic, tweeted that “all of us have a task to play to finish this pandemic and infodemic” – particularly social media platforms.

Younger had known as on different artists to help him following his motion. Whereas Mitchell, 78, isn’t a present hitmaker, the Canadian native’s Spotify web page mentioned she had 3.7 million month-to-month listeners to her music.

Her songs Large Yellow Taxi and A Case of You’ve gotten each been streamed greater than 100 million instances on the service.

In a message on his web site Friday, Younger mentioned that “once I left Spotify, I felt higher”.

“Personal corporations have the proper to decide on what they revenue from, simply as I can select to not have my music help a platform that disseminates dangerous data,” he wrote. “I’m comfortable and proud to face in solidarity with the entrance line well being care employees who danger their lives each day to assist others.”

There was no speedy response to a request for remark from Spotify.