He has deleted the letter since posting it, but recently, folk-rock legend, Neil Young, took aim at Spotify demanding that all of his music be removed from the music streaming platform. “Why would he do this?” you’re probably asking. Why else? Yup, we have yet another argument over COVID and the vaccine. Are you tired of it yet?
In the letter, Young wrote: “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. Please act on this immediately today and keep me informed of the time schedule.” He continued, “They can have Rogan or Young. Not both.” This, of course, is referring to Rogan’s comments and beliefs about the COVID vaccine.
Regardless of what your own feelings are over the vaccine, I think it’s pretty obvious that this is a ridiculous thing to do. On some level, I guess I understand that Neil Young is doing what he thinks is a righteous thing, but I think he is greatly underestimating the overlap of people that listen to his music and Joe Rogan’s podcast. In fact, I’d wager that I’m one of the relatively few people that actually overlap in listening to the two.
As for Rogan, I tend to enjoy his podcast a lot less when he’s getting political or talking about COVID, and many of the people I talk to say the same thing. We listen for the fact that he’s probably one of the best interviewers to ever walk the face of the earth coupled with the fact that his guests are often hilarious or incredibly interesting. I’m sure there are people out there that are feverishly consuming every political statement Rogan makes, which is completely fine, but let’s be real here: most people go to Rogan for entertainment and not help with their political philosophies. If you agree with him, you’ll continue agreeing. If you disagree, you’ll continue disagreeing. But COVID is hardly the first time he spoke controversially about something, and I’m sure it won’t be the last. It didn’t stop his listeners from tuning in before, and it won’t stop them now.
That’s why it’s pointless for Neil Young to make this request. Taking him off of Spotify won’t stop millions of people from heading somewhere else to give his podcast a listen. That’s not to mention the fact that Spotify is most definitely going to keep Rogan over Neil Young. Personally, I’d rather have Young on there because I tend to go to YouTube to watch Rogan clips and some of my playlists have a heavy Neil Young presence, but I think the majority of people these days are leaning more toward hitting Spotify to give an episode of Rogan’s podcast a listen than popping on “Old Man” by Neil Young.
With all that said, I’m just tired of hearing about this stuff every single day.
