Neil Young returning to Spotify, ends protest against Joe Rogan

Rock ‘n’ roll Hall of Famer Neil Young is returning to Spotify, two years after withdrawing his music as a protest against podcast host Joe Rogan.

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Young, 78, made the announcement on his website on Tuesday.

“My decision comes as music services Apple and Amazon have started serving the same disinformation podcast features I had opposed at Spotify,” Young wrote. “I cannot just leave Apple and Amazon, like I did Spotify, because my music would have very little streaming outlet to music lovers at all, so I have returned to Spotify.”

Rogan previously had an exclusive deal with Spotify, The New York Times reported The deal has since been renewed. Last month, The Wall Street Journal reported that the actor-comedian had reached a deal that would allow “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast to be distributed more widely.

The deal, estimated to be worth as much as $250 million during the life of its multiyear deal, allows Rogan’s podcast to be distributed across several platforms, according to the newspaper.

Young removed his music from Spotify in January 2022, according to The Hollywood Reporter. At the time, the “Heart of Gold” singer said that Spotify represented 60% of his streaming revenue worldwide, which was “a huge loss for (his) record company to absorb,” the entertainment news website reported.

He decided to remove his music because he “could not continue to support Spotify’s life-threatening misinformation to the music-loving public.”

Rogan said that he was a longtime fan of Neil Young, and had no desire to hurt anybody despite repeatedly questioning the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines to his large audience, Rolling Stone reported.

“I’m not trying to promote misinformation,” Rogan said at the time, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. “I’m not trying to be controversial. I’ve never tried to do anything with this podcast other than to just talk to people … I do not know if they’re right. I don’t know because I’m not a doctor; I’m not a scientist. I’m just a person who sits down and talks to people and has conversations with them.”

Singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell followed Young’s lead in 2022 by removing her music from Spotify several days after the “Harvest” singer, the Times reported.

Billboard estimated that Young’s protest had cost him approximately $16,000 in royalties per month.

Young is a two-time inductee in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He was inducted as a solo artist in 1995, and as a member of Buffalo Springfield two years later with fellow 1960s bandmates Stephen Stills, Richie Furay, Dewey Martin and Bruce Palmer.

As a solo artist, Young has placed 11 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, including “Heart of Gold,” his only top-10 hit. The song went to No. 1 in early 1972.

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Photos: Neil Young through the years 1985: Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young, playing a Gibson Les Paul guitar, smiles while performing during the Live Aid concert for famine relief at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia on July 13, 1985. (AP Photo/George Widman)

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