In Removing Neil Young’s Music, Spotify Didn’t Have to Listen to the Artist, but Did Have to Heed His Label
Chris Willman Music WriterHow did Neil Young get Spotify to remove his entire catalog from the service? Not by taking it up with the service directly; the service had no obligation to give his personal wishes the time of day, although the DSP is not about to put its head in the sand when an important artist is publicly going on the anti-Spotify warpath. Rather, Young convinced his longtime label, Warner Records, to be the one to plead his case to the service, at which point there was little doubt that the rocker was going to get his way.So as the question arises of which artists might want to follow Young’s lead and ask to have their music removed, too, in light of Spotify continuing to be the home base for Joe Rogan’s campaign to provide COVID misinformation, there’s not much they can do it about unless the heads of the labels they’re signed to agree to take it to the mat with the DSP.