Neil Young is bringing his music again to Spotify greater than two years after requesting its elimination from the platform, the singer-songwriter introduced Tuesday (March 12).
In January 2022, Young printed an open letter asking Spotify to pull down his catalog, citing what he referred to as the unfold of vaccine misinformation on the wildly widespread Joe Rogan Experience podcast, which was then hosted completely on the streaming platform. Several different artists, together with Joni Mitchell, Indie.Arie and Young’s Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young bandmates David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash, subsequently adopted go well with, although CSN/CSN&Y and Arie’s music have since been restored to the service; Mitchell’s catalog stays absent.
In a brand new submit on his Neil Young Archives web site, the legendary artist stated the top of Spotify’s unique cope with Rogan led to his choice to restore his music to the service. “My decision comes as music services Apple and Amazon have started serving the same disinformation podcast features I had opposed at Spotify,” the submit reads – a transparent reference to the Joe Rogan Experience, although Young by no means mentions it by title.
“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, in sincere hopes that Spotify sound quality will improve and people will be able to hear and feel all the music as we made it,” Young continued, earlier than shouting out Qobuz and Tidal, the place his catalog additionally lives, as “High res” streaming choices.
Young concludes his submit by stating his hope that Spotify “will turn to Hi Res as the answer and serve all the music to everyone. Spotify, you can do it! Really be #1 in all ways. You have the music and listeners!!!! Start with a limited Hi res tier and build from there!”
Spotify introduced plans to roll out a HiFi tier in February 2021, although these plans have but to come to fruition. In June 2023, Bloomberg reported the streaming big would lastly launch the product later within the 12 months, however the firm declined remark when reached by Billboard – and the calendar rolled over with out the tier materializing.
Young has lengthy been an advocate of high-resolution audio, even launching his personal (now-defunct) high-res audio obtain platform, Pono, in 2015 earlier than shuttering it two years later.
In September, Billboard estimated that the absence of Young’s catalog on Spotify had value him roughly $300,000 in misplaced recorded music and publishing royalties to that time.
At press time, Young’s music catalog had but to be restored to Spotify, which didn’t instantly reply to Billboard‘s request for remark.
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