Here’s the latest on the Neil Young-Spotify feud:
This morning the Spotify stock sagged a bit but now it’s recovered and going up actually. Spotify stock is down $20 or so since Tuesday when Young first demanded that Spotify remove his music over Joe Rogan’s misinformation disseminated on his podcast.
There was some talk of other artists joining in with Young, but so far no one has taken a side. A rumor started that Barry Manilow, of all people, was pulling his music off the streamer in solidarity with Young. But Manilow never said a word, and no one knows where that started. Plus, Manilow sold his catalog in 2020 to Hipgnosis Music. He probably doesn’t have the right to yank it anyway.
I empathize with Neil Young. We are living in a peculiar time when rednecks and lunkheads are interfering with public health and education. That a man waiting for a heart transplant refuses to take the vaccine for COVID really spells it out. There’s no basic sense of logic. Did these people always exist, or did Trump enable them? Everyday there are reports of anti-vaxxers dying and it seems to no impact on their fellow dolts. Go figure.
As for Neil, he streams his own music through the Neil Young Archives, which puts him a different position than most artists. Also, there must be some people listening to him on his defunct Pono player, right?
