Rocker Neil Young is being joined by three familiar faces in his protest of Spotify over the spread of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation.

David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash released a statement on Wednesday in support of their former bandmate, asking the streaming service to remove their music as well.


What You Need To Know

  • David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash are joining former bandmate Neil Young's protest of Spotify

  • Young had his music removed from Spotify after the streaming service declined to get rid of episodes of "The Joe Rogan Experience," which has been criticized for spreading COVID-19 misinformation

  • In recent days, Spotify said that it will add content advisories before podcasts discussing COVID-19

  • Rockers Joni Mitchell and Nils Lofgren and R&B singer India Arie have also boycotted Spotify in recent days; Arie is protesting Rogan's "language around race"

"We support Neil and we agree with him that there is dangerous disinformation being aired on Spotify’s Joe Rogan podcast," the trio wrote in a statement posted to Twitter. "While we always value alternate points of view, knowingly spreading disinformation during this global pandemic has deadly consequences."

Until real action is taken to show that a concern for humanity must be balanced with commerce, we don’t want our music – or the music we made together – to be on the same platform," they added.

Young joined Crosby, Stills and Nash in 1969, forming an on-again, off-again supergroup throughout the 1970s and 1980s and beyond. The group most recently toured during the 2006 Freedom of Speech Tour, which featured songs from Young's "Living With War" album, a critique of former President George W. Bush and the Iraq war.

Their first album as a foursome, "Déjà Vu," reached No. 1 in several countries, including the United States, was certified 7x platinum and spawned hit singles "Woodstock", "Teach Your Children", and "Our House."

 

The four of them have not performed together since 2013 at the Bridge School Benefit in California after years of tumult and acrimony between members of the band. The group dissolved in 2015. 

But they appear to be united in their goal to get Spotify to change its policies. In recent days, Spotify said that it will add content advisories before podcasts discussing COVID-19.

In a post Sunday, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek laid out more transparent platform rules after the streamer declined to get rid of episodes of "The Joe Rogan Experience," which has been criticized for spreading virus misinformation.

Ek said that the advisories will link to Spotify's fact-based COVID-19 hub in what he described as a "new effort to combat misinformation." It will roll out in the coming days, Ek said. 

Rogan responded to the fallout on Sunday, saying in a video on Instagram that he was only seeking to have conversations on his podcast with people who have "differing opinions."

"I'm not trying to promote misinformation, I'm not trying to be controversial," Rogan said. "I've never tried to do anything with this podcast other than to just talk to people."

The protest against Spotify continues to grow, albeit slowly. Joni Mitchell said she asked to remove all of her music from Spotify, and Nils Lofgren, a Young collaborator and guitarist for Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band, said he was joining the protest.

"We encourage all musicians, artists and music lovers everywhere to stand with us and cut ties with Spotify," Lofgren said in a statement.

R&B singer India Arie also announced she was pulling her music from Spotify, but because of Rogan's "language around race," which she said was "problematic."

"Neil Young opened a door that I MUST walk through," she wrote, adding: "This shows the type of company they are and the company that they keep."

Spotify dominates the marketplace. It had 31 percent of the 524 million worldwide music stream subscriptions in the second quarter of 2021, more than double that of second-place Apple Music, according to Midia Research. Spotify is not always popular with musicians, many of whom complain that it doesn't pay them enough for their work.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.