Singer/songwriter Neil Young has kept up his attack on music streaming giant Spotify over promulgating Covid disinformation and is now berating investment banks for funding fossil fuel excavation.
Earlier this month, Young instructed his manager to yank his music from the platform in protest at a Joe Rogan podcast on Spotify that, in Young’s view, spread “fake information about vaccines”.
Young’s stand was quickly followed by fellow Canadian singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell, his former bandmates Graham Nash and David Crosby plus numerous other well-established artists of a certain vintage, such as Nils Lofgren, formerly a member of Crazy Horse (who backed Young on several albums) and currently a guitarist with Bruce Springsteen’s E-street band.
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Rolling Stone magazine reports there has been a sharp increase in sales of Young’s music and streaming of his music on other streaming sites since he delivered his ultimatum.
According to market research group MRC Data, for the period 27 January – 3 February, Young saw a 4% rise in on-demand streaming numbers while sales of his albums increased by 80% from the previous week.
Apple Music, which runs a rival music streaming platform, took advantage of Spotify’s embarrassment by launching a new marketing campaign that heavily featured the grumpy Canadian (Young has on occasions taken to assuring audience members at his live shows that, contrary to appearances, he is actually enjoying himself on stage).
Joni Mitchell saw her streaming numbers rise by 32%; sales of her albums (in physical form, i.e. vinyl, CD and given the age of her target audience, quite possibly cassette or 8-track cartridge) rose 125% while digital downloads soared 193%.
Perhaps encouraged by this, Young is now taking a stand against banks – not by insisting his manager takes all of Young’s money out of them but by calling on people to withdraw their money from those banks that fund fossil fuels.
Young’s website specifically named JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) and Wells Fargo as “damage causers”.
Young, who recorded a whole album – The Monsanto Years – that criticised the agribusiness Monsanto, is clearly still a protest singer at heart.
His attack on Spotify wiped a couple of billion dollars off the stock market valuation of the Swedish music streaming service, and prompted the company’s chief executive, Daniel Ek, to defend the rights of free speech as the company pledged to carry on hosting the Joe Rogan podcast, which is its most widely-listened to asset and for which it reportedly paid US$100mln in 2020 to secure the rights.
“I say Daniel Ek is your big problem – not Joe Rogan. Get out of that place before it eats up your soul,” Young advised employees of Spotify.