Crosby, Stills & Nash in concert during 10th Annual Music Midtown Festival – Day 2 – Crosby, Stills & Nash In Concert at Midtown Atlanta in Atlanta, Georgia, United States.
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The estranged Crosby, Stills & Nash have reunited in an effort to withdraw their music from Spotify in solidarity with former bandmate Neil Young.
Young, with support of his record studio, pulled his music from the streaming platform last week over allegations that Joe Rogan, Spotify’s star podcaster, was spreading coronavirus vaccination misinformation with his show.
“We support Neil and we agree with him that there is dangerous disinformation being aired on Spotify’s Joe Rogan podcast,” David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash said in a joint statement shared on Crosby’s Twitter account.
“While we always value alternate points of view, knowingly spreading disinformation during this global pandemic has deadly consequences. Until real action is taken to show that a concern for humanity must be balanced with commerce, we don’t want our music – or the music we made together – to be on the same platform,” the trio added.
Spotify did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
Rogan has been in hot water with accusations from medical professionals that he has repeatedly spread conspiracy theories about Covid-19. Spotify has also been under fire for hosting the episodes. It bought the exclusive streaming rights to “The Joe Rogan Experience” in a deal reportedly worth more than $100 million.
Last month, 270 medical professionals wrote an open letter to the streaming giant asking it to take action against Rogan’s podcast, accusing the company of broadcasting misinformation.
Young called on fellow artists to support his movement. Since then, other artists, like Joni Mitchell and Nils Lofgren, have asked their labels to withdraw their music from Spotify.
The efforts have caused Spotify to add content advisories to any material mentioning Covid-19. It will also direct its users to public health sites for more information.
But the streamer has stuck behind Rogan, whose show brings in millions of listeners. Rogan thanked Spotify in a video this week addressing the controversy,
“I want to thank Spotify for being so supportive during this time, and I’m very sorry that this is happening to them and that they’re taking so much heat from it,” Rogan said Sunday.
Rogan has said he is open to making changes to his show, such as booking more mainstream experts after having controversial ones and doing more research on certain topics.
Spotify is set to report earnings after-the-bell on Wednesday.
