Neil Young has escalated his dispute with Spotify by advising its workers to quit the streaming firm “before it eats up your soul”.
Last month, the Rockin’ in the Free World musician demanded his music be pulled from the platform due to podcast host Joe Rogan allegedly spreading Covid-19 misinformation.
Spotify executives complied and removed much of his music from the service, but he has now stepped up his criticism by directly slamming chief executive Daniel Ek.
“To the workers at Spotify, I say Daniel Ek is your problem – not Joe Rogan. Ek pulls the strings,” he wrote in a note posted on his website. “Get out of that place before it eats up your soul. The only goals stated by Ek are numbers, not art, not creativity.”
Rogan’s $100 million (£74 million) deal with Spotify has come under scrutiny due to Young’s stance in following medical professionals in criticising the comedian-turned-podcast star. The former MMA presenter’s use of racist epithets and alleged sexist comments have also prompted a backlash. In response, Ek has removed many of the offending episodes from Spotify and promised to invest $100 million in content from marginalised groups and to put content warnings on dubious information.
Spotify has also drawn criticism from musicians for the cut of royalties they receive from streams of their songs.
Young has been joined in his protests by his old bandmates Graham Nash, David Crosby, and Stephen Stills, as well as his friend Joni Mitchell, in demanding their music be removed from Spotify.
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