I too disagree, that making it a case of Announcing, then letting Spotify show that they are amoral bean counters, then thanking Warner makes three days and tars Spotify. Simply leaving would have been a flounce.
The goal was to make the amoral bean counters reveal their amorality, and in that he did do a pretty good job.
I, er, will be over here listening to Neil Young on Apple Music.
They were given a chance to save their souls.
Good to know. I was considering signing up for a free account just to listen to their podcast on the history of reggaeton, but I wasn’t happy about the prospect. Maybe I can just learn about the history of reggaeton elsewhere. I resent the idea of exclusive podcasts anyway - it may be inevitable but I don’t have to contribute.
If I had to choose between Young and Rogan, it will be Young every time, hands down. I find them both irritating in their own way, but Rogan much more so.
But I imagine that Spotify was also worried about the precedent this would set. If other artists started doing this, it could put Spotify in the position of having to sort out hundreds of artists and podcasters all refusing to be on the platform if some other artist or podcaster is on the platform. And that might not always be a good thing. I’m not a Spotify subscriber but if I was, the day some obscure trans-positive indie band gets kicked off the platform because they butt heads with a Christian-country superstar who thinks they “erode family values” or some other bunk would be the day I unsubscribe.
Having a hardline on not promoting white supremacy and medical misinformation is a bad precedent?
It’s against the ethos of the genre. But on the other hands the creators need to live, too.
Luckily, the industry seems to coalesce around the Patreon model, which still gives everyone a free product but the option to pay (and possibly some paid bonus eps)
It’s gonna take a lot of love to change the way things are.
Same thing. Just deleted the app.
Also as they have claimed, they have take down thousands of podcasts for bad content. The precedent they have set is that they do moderate content but not that.
No. But if they want to be serious about kicking white supremacy and medical misinformation off their platform, they should just go ahead and do that because it’s the right thing to do.
What I’m saying is it would be a bad thing for Spotify to start kicking people off their platform because some other person threw out an ultimatum of “it’s them or me”. Turning this in to a popularity contest can only solidify existing power structures and work to the disadvantage of smaller, less well resourced artists.
And yet, just recently I saw a clip where he talked with Jordan Peterson, spewing all sorts of BS about climate change and trans people…
Then they should kick Rogan off their platform. But they don’t, because all the care about is the money he makes them.
So, taking a moral stand is a popularity contest now? Really? Neil Young is a internationally known artist, with a lot of power and clout in the industry. he made the decision to take a stand based on his moral compass. Spotify decided that they care more about the dough they rake in platforming bigotry and bullshit. 
That’s been one good thing to come from this mess - it got me out of “lazy mode” and I discovered Tidal. Fingers crossed they’re less terrible than Spotify.
ETA: If you want to delete your account with Spotify, the chatbot makes it easy, and you even get to tell it why (in case Spotify didn’t connect the dots about people quitting the day the news broke…).
Login - Spotify and tell the chatbot ‘I Want To Close My Account’
I have no clue what the deal is with Tidal’s current ownership. Apparently they’re mostly owned by some payment processing company.
But when they launched it with a bunch of prominent musicians buying in as part owners that was the entire idea. Pay fairer rates to the actual artists. In response to how very low rates for other streaming services meant small artists never earned anything, and record companies captured everything for larger artists.
From what I understand it’s not all that different, to next to useless for smaller and independent artists. And there’s been some accusations of sketchy accounting to avoid payouts to smaller artists. But their base rate is supposed to be considerably higher, and a higher portion is supposed to go the artist themselves. So it seems to work for some people.
I think the lossless only angle is left over from an earlier iteration where it was targeted at audiophiles. Whole thing seems like it could use some rethinking/new management.
Option A
or Option B
Neato thing - Spotify had both Option A and B, at various points in the timeline.
They picked C, apparently.
Yes, exactly. They should have done it before Neil Young called them out. For instance a couple of weeks ago when 270 doctors and researchers asked Spotify to remove his COVID misinformation. Or, you know, any of the other times when he has said and done horrible things. Then they wouldn’t be facing a situation where they were asked to do it by musicians on their platform. But given that they didn’t do it when they should have, I’m glad Neil Young called them out, and I wish they had taken the opportunity he gave them.
It’s also worth remembering that Joe Rogan isn’t just some guy who spouts shit on their platform. He has a $100M contract to be exclusive to Spotify, and is the centerpiece of their effort to take over the podcasting sector, and they use his persona to promote their platform. While I’m sure they say “his views are his own and don’t reflect the views of Spotify”, they picked him. He’s not that far from an official spokesperson for the company.
They should have never signed him to begin with.
It’s not like everyone didn’t know he was conspiracy minded crypto-fascist and a core pathway for extreme right wing ideas to enter the mainstream.
It’s not like he hasn’t had repeated, regular controversies along these lines for years.
It’s not like he wasn’t “close friends” with Alex Jones.
They’ve already had to remove certain controversial episodes and this is hardly the only major spike in pressure for them to drop or control him.
They clearly don’t give two fucks.
