This week's major stories were about opinions regarding Canadian-American songwriter Neil Young pulling his music from Spotify after claiming that The Joe Rogan Experience podcast was "spreading fake information about vaccines — potentially causing death to those who believe this disinformation spread by them." Young said it was either him or Rogan that had to go, and considering Spotify paid Rogan somewhere in the realm of $100 million for the exclusive rights to the podcast in 2020, this seemed like a losing fight right off the bat (and it was).
Disturbed vocalist David Draiman weighed in on the issue, saying "I applaud you and @Spotify for making the RIGHT call, preserving #FreeSpeech and not capitulating to the mob," while solo artist and ex-Skid Row vocalist Sebastian Bach called Draiman out saying "Imagine calling yourself a rocker yet siding with some dude who has a podcast over @Neilyoung ?." Now it seems the issue is only getting bigger.
According to Variety, Spotify lost about $2.1 billion in market share over the past few days (The San Francisco Chronicle puts it closer to $4 billion) while their stocks fell 6% between January 26 and 28. Songwriter Joni Mitchell, whose songs have tens (and sometimes hundreds) of millions of plays on Spotify, has also announced she's leaving the platform. Mitchell said "I've decided to remove all my music from Spotify. Irresponsible people are spreading lies that are costing people their lives. I stand in solidarity with Neil Young and the global scientific and medical communities on this issue."
So could Young and Mitchell spark more artists to leave the platform? Will metal bands start to leave as well? Another interesting take on the situation comes from YouTuber and Sungazer bassist Adam Neely, who points out that ideals and reality are two different things for smaller artists.
"As much as I'd like to remove my music from Spotify, I really can't. Booking live shows for Sungazer is based on how many Spotify listeners we have in a given market. At our level, Spotify is the industry de facto source for those analytics.
"It would be easy to say 'oh, but you're a YouTuber with x subscribers!' That's not how live music works. Buyers are market data-driven, and the only show in town is Spotify, not YouTube, not Apple Music, not Tidal.
"Data is a confounding factor.
"People also VASTLY overestimate what it means to be a YouTuber with x subscribers. I talk to people about music while they're pooping, that doesn't mean that they'll want to buy tickets to see my electronic fusion band when we come through St. Louis.
"Anyway, things that can actually tip the scale – cancel your Spotify premium subscription, sign up for Apple Music or Tidal. If you work at @AppleMusic or @TIDAL, start developing/integrating more data tools for mid-level artists for touring."
So I guess the short answer here is "who knows, we'll see." But Young doing what he did, regardless of how you feel about it, may have actually moved the needle in a significant way.
