Joni Mitchell joins Neil Young, pulls her music from Spotify over vaccine misinformation – TechCrunch

Spotify’s Joe Rogan headache is about to get lots worse.

Earlier this week, musician Neil Younger introduced that he would pull his music from the streaming service to protest Spotify’s relationship with Joe Rogan, who the corporate introduced below its wing in an unique $100 million deal two years in the past. In a submit to her web site on Friday, Joni Mitchell introduced that she would “stand with Neil Younger” and take away her catalogue from the streaming platform.

“I’ve determined to take away all my music from Spotify. Irresponsible individuals are spreading lies which are costing folks their lives,” Mitchell wrote. “I stand in solidarity with Neil Younger and the worldwide scientific and medical communities on this subject.”

As one of many world’s most well-known and most well-respected dwelling musicians, Mitchell’s determination to desert Spotify over Rogan is sure to show some heads. And in contrast to Younger, she didn’t have an present beef with the service over its stream high quality.

Rogan’s podcast, the Joe Rogan Expertise, isn’t any stranger to controversy. In recent times, Rogan and plenty of his featured visitors have brazenly expressed transphobia, discouraged his listeners from sporting face masks to scale back Covid-19 transmission as a result of masks are “for bitches,” and broadly unfold doubt about vaccines to his huge viewers.

Rogan’s present additionally occurs to be the world’s hottest podcast, bringing in additional than an estimated 11 million listeners per episode, with a number of episodes hitting Spotify every week.

Rogan recurrently spotlights visitors who peddle misinformation and makes no effort to fact-check their claims. His determination to host Dr. Robert Malone, a virologist banned from Twitter for spreading misinformation about COVID-19, prompted lots of of medical professionals to signal onto an open letter slamming Spotify for profiting off of placing lives in danger because the pandemic rages on. The letter impressed Younger to depart the service this week and Mitchell additionally linked to it in her personal message.

“Dr. Malone used the JRE platform to additional promote quite a few baseless claims, together with a number of falsehoods about COVID-19 vaccines and an unfounded principle that societal leaders have ‘hypnotized’ the general public,” that letter reads.

“Many of those statements have already been discredited. Notably, Dr. Malone is certainly one of two latest JRE visitors who has in contrast pandemic insurance policies to the Holocaust. These actions usually are not solely objectionable and offensive, but additionally medically and culturally harmful.”