What you need to know
- Spotify lost more than $2 billion in market value after Neil Young pulled his music from the streaming platform.
- The Canadian-American singer took his songs off Spotify in protest of Joe Rogan's podcast.
- Rogan has been accused of spreading misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines via his podcast.
Spotify's market value has slipped by $2.1 billion over the Joe Rogan controversy. Canadian-American singer Neil Young removed his music from the streaming giant a few days ago, accusing Spotify of supporting Rogan in spreading false information about vaccines.
According to a report by Variety, Spotify shares dropped 6% in just three days, from January 26 to 28, following Young's protest. Canadian singer Joni Mitchell has also thrown her weight behind Young and had her songs removed from one of the best music streaming services as well.
Prior to the boycott, an open letter to Spotify signed by 270 doctors and professors was published in December, urging the platform to moderate its content. The letter cited an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience in which medical doctor Robert Malone promoted an upcoming anti-vaccine rally and claimed that the public had been "hypnotized" into getting vaccinated.
The scientists wrote:
By allowing the propagation of false and societally harmful assertions, Spotify is enabling its hosted media to damage public trust in scientific research and sow doubt in the credibility of data-driven guidance offered by medical professionals.
Before Spotify's most recent loss, its stock price had already dropped earlier this month, with the company reporting a 25% fall in share value as of January 25. That was the day before Young's songs were removed from Spotify.
The streaming service said then (via BBC) that it had already "removed over 20,000 podcast episodes related to Covid since the start of the pandemic." However, Rogan's podcast is still available on the platform.
If you're also one of those who want to leave Spotify over the Joe Rogan controversy, you might want to switch to other music streaming platforms like YouTube Music. Android Central's Ara Wagoner offers a compelling reason to do so.
