Singer Joni Mitchell announced on Jan. 28 that she was withdrawing her songs from Spotify due to “lies” on the streaming site concerning Covid-19, just days after fellow musical great Neil Young did the same.

The “Big Yellow Taxi” singer stated on her website that she was backing Young, who was involved in a legal battle with Spotify over the immensely famous “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast.

“I’ve decided to remove all my music from Spotify,” Mitchell said.

“Irresponsible people are spreading lies that are costing people their lives.

“I stand in solidarity with Neil Young and the global scientific and medical communities on this issue.”

Mitchell’s website also featured a copy of an open letter to Spotify signed by doctors and other experts urging the firm to develop a disinformation policy in response to Rogan’s repeated lies and conspiracy theories about the coronavirus pandemic.

Spotify did not respond to our request for comment right away.

Young, who is best known for his songs “Heart of Gold” and “Harvest Moon,” removed his music from Spotify this week after informing the site that it had to choose between him and Rogan.

He accused Spotify of “spreading fake info about vaccines – potentially causing death” by broadcasting Rogan’s program, which has millions of listens.

“Spotify has become the home of life threatening Covid misinformation,” he wrote. “Lies being sold for money.”

“I realised I could not continue to support Spotify’s life threatening misinformation to the music loving public.”

Young has over six million monthly listeners on the famous streaming network. Mitchell, a fellow Canadian, currently has 3.7 million followers.

Rogan has a multi-year exclusive deal with Spotify for an estimated $100 million, as well as a sizable fan base.

His program is accused by critics of being a platform for conspiracy theories and misinformation, particularly with Covid-19.

Rogan has advocated for the off-label use of the anti-parasitic medicine ivermectin to treat the virus.

In a statement this week, Spotify said: “We want all the world’s music and audio content to be available to Spotify users.

“With that comes great responsibility in balancing both safety for listeners and freedom for creators. We have detailed content policies in place and we’ve removed over 20,000 podcast episodes related to Covid since the start of the pandemic.”

“We regret Neil’s decision to remove his music from Spotify,” the service said, “but hope to welcome him back soon.”

Image Credit: AFP

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