James Blunt threatens to release new music on Spotify in protest against Joe Rogan

NME

James Blunt has threatened to release new music on Spotify in protest against Joe Rogan’s podcast, which is an exclusive on the platform.

• READ MORE: Soundtrack Of My Life: James Blunt

Earlier this week, Neil Young had his music removed from Spotify after writing an open letter that said the Joe Rogan Experience was “spreading false information about vaccines”.

“They can have Rogan or Young. Not both,” the musician wrote. “With an estimated 11 million listeners per episode, JRE, which is hosted exclusively on Spotify, is the world’s largest podcast and has tremendous influence. Spotify has a responsibility to mitigate the spread of misinformation on its platform, though the company presently has no misinformation policy.”

The removal will apparently cost Young “60 per cent” of his streaming income but he’s been joined by Joni Mitchell, who has also said she will take her catalogue down from Spotify “in solidarity with Neil Young”.

And now James Blunt has joined the protest in his own unique way.

“If Spotify doesn’t immediately remove Joe Rogan, I will release new music onto the platform,” he wrote on Twitter before ending with a hashtag that read “You were beautiful”

If @spotify doesn’t immediately remove @joerogan, I will release new music onto the platform. #youwerebeautiful

— James Blunt (@JamesBlunt) January 29, 2022

“If this doesn’t work, nothing will” wrote one fan. “On this day, let history remember, that James Blunt did indeed win the Internet,” added another.

A third wrote “Oh dear another has been musician trying to restrict free speech and scientific debate on Joe Rogan . So wet James Blunt and so very sad.”

If he follows through with his threat, it will be the first new music James Blunt has released since 2021’s greatest hits collection ‘The Stars Beneath My Feet’ which included four new songs.

Rogan currently hosts Spotify’s most popular podcast, after agreeing to a $100 million deal in May 2020 to move the show to the streaming platform.

In a recent episode Rogan interviewed medical doctor Robert Malone, who stated that Americans were “hypnotised” into wearing masks and getting vaccines, and that the country suffered from “mass formation psychosis”.

A new open letter signed by 270 members of the science and medical community has now highlighted the episode which aired on December 31, describing Rogan’s actions as “not only objectionable and offensive, but also medically and culturally dangerous”.

“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,” the letter states.

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