‘An Assortment of Links and Observations Regarding the Neil Young –Joe Rogan Spotify Saga’
John Gruber at Daring Fireball:
It’s not just a one-time principled stand, either. Neil Young is an artist with a lifetime of principled credibility. Cynicism runs so deep right now that many people overlook the obvious: that Young is putting his money where his mouth is by pulling his catalog from Spotify. There is no catch. Young’s goal was not to get Spotify to dump Rogan, as many seem to think. His goal was simply to force Spotify to go on the record, in public, with their explicit support for Rogan, and to raise awareness that their rules — right or wrong — accommodate his show’s commentary on COVID and vaccines. Genuine virtue, not mere virtue signaling.
I had started to collect similar tweets and stories about how Young’s stance has played out, but Gruber has done such a good job that I won’t duplicate his efforts.
I’m with him on this; I commend Young (and others) for acting on their principles but am not surprised in the slightest that Spotify didn’t blink. They knew what they were getting for the $100 million they paid for Rogan’s show.
I’m glad that Gruber called attention to the distinction between Spotify as the publisher of Rogan’s show and Apple as an indexer. It’s an important difference when considering where the responsibility resides for the content.
Another worthwhile story that has popped up since then:
The Joe Rogan controversy is what happens when you put podcasts behind a wall | The Verge