Neil Young has doubled down on his decision to have his music removed from Spotify.
The veteran folk and rock star in January stated his wish to pull his catalogue from Spotify after taking issue with the streaming platform “spreading false information” about COVID vaccines.
At the time he took particular aim at the controversial podcaster Joe Rogan, who is a prominent skeptic of the vaccines and has a lucrative exclusivity contract with Spotify, pointing out widespread misinformation shared via his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience.
Now, Young has explained further his move to cut ties with the platform by removing his music. “Why would I keep it on there when it sounds like a pixelated movie?” he told The Howard Stern Show in reference to the alleged sound quality of songs on the platform.
He continued [transcribed by Billboard]: “I woke up one morning and I heard somebody saying there was some scientists saying something about COVID, or some doctors and they were saying something about COVID and how many people were dying in hospitals and misinformation.
“And I listened to it and they were saying he purposely is saying this stuff that he knows isn’t true about COVID and people were dying,” Young said of Rogan’s decision to platform vaccine falsehoods.
“I just called up my management and said, ‘We’re out of there. Get me off.’ And we’ll be fine, and it was a little shocking because they know all the numbers. Who cares? You know, who cares? What’s his name? [Spotify CEO] Daniel Ek? He cares about money.”
Young continued: “I knew I was gonna do fine. There’s Amazon, there’s Apple, there QoBuz, those are three streaming services that play hi-res. And it sounds better at the other places.”
Meanwhile, this Friday (November 18) Young and his band Crazy Horse release their new album ‘World Record‘.
In otheer news the first trailer for the upcoming Young documentary Harvest Time has been shared.
Neil Young: Harvest Time features never-before-seen footage that was filmed in northern California, London and Nashville, and documents the writing and recording of Young’s classic 1972 album ‘Harvest’.
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