Spotify is reportedly deleting Neil Young’s music from its app after deciding it would not remove Joe Rogan’s podcast, which the musician said spreads misinformation about Covid-19 vaccines.

In an open letter, the Canadian-American singer said that he wanted his music removed from the streaming platform if the music streaming site continued to offer Rogan’s podcast, stating “they can have Rogan or Young”.

According to a report by The Guardian, Rogan signed a $100 million deal back in 2020 which gave Spotify exclusive rights to his podcast. The show has sparked controversy over allegations that the show promotes misleading ideas about the pandemic and the vaccine.

“With an estimated 11 million listeners per episode, [The Joe Rogan Experience], which is hosted exclusively on Spotify, is the world’s largest podcast and has tremendous influence,” read the letter from Young, addressed to Young’s manager and record label, as reported by the newspaper. “Spotify has a responsibility to mitigate the spread of misinformation on its platform, though the company presently has no misinformation policy.

“I want you to let Spotify know immediately TODAY that I want all my music off their platform … They can have Rogan or Young. Not both.”

The Guardian reported that a Spotify spokesperson had confirmed that the platform was removing Young’s music.

The spokesperson said: “We want all the world’s music and audio content to be available to Spotify users. With that comes great responsibility in balancing both safety for listeners and freedom for creators. We have detailed content policies in place and we’ve removed over 20,000 podcast episodes related to Covid since the start of the pandemic. We regret Neil’s decision to remove his music from Spotify, but hope to welcome him back soon.”

Earlier this month 270 healthcare professionals, doctors, scientists, and academics signed a letter outlining concerns about misinformation on Rogan’s podcast.

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