This week, Spotify finally announced wildly inadequate measures it will take to supposedly address the rampant covid misinformation being shared on “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast. But the measures come as numerous artists and creators—the most visible of which so far include Neil Young, Joni Mitchell (all hail the Queen), and now Roxane Gay—have announced they’ll be leaving the streamer.
Apparently, just slapping a little disclaimer on a podcast that routinely spews life-endangering myths on vaccines and the pandemic isn’t going to cut it for artists who don’t want to support “deadly misinformation about COVID,” as Young put it in his open letter to his manager, Frank Gironda, and Tom Corson, the co-chairman and chief operating officer of Warner Records. Young also expressed hope that other artists and record companies would join him in leaving Spotify, which is happening as we speak.
Backlash against Spotify over its enabling of Rogan, who signed a $100 million exclusive deal with the streamer in 2020, has also drawn increased scrutiny of the company’s other problematic aspects, like, say, paying most of its artists just $0.003 to $0.005 per stream. As more and more and increasingly visible artists announce their departures, and during a week that’s already seen the company lose $2 billion as its stock has plummeted, pressure is rising for Spotify to take more drastic action on Rogan’s misinformation.
Here are the artists that have opted out, so far:
