Folk Rock Supergroup Follows Neil Young in Spotify Protest

By Michael Hein

Crosby, Stills and Nash have joined their former bandmate Neil Young's protest against Spotify. Young pulled all of his music from Spotify over the streamer's massive deal with podcaster Joe Rogan in spite of his spread of COVID-19 misinformation. Now David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash have pulled their music as well.

Crosby, Stills & Nash is a folk-rock supergroup formed in 1968, and, at times, its lineup has included Young. The group issued a statement on Stills' Twitter page on Wednesday, reading: "We support Neil and we agree with him that there is dangerous disinformation being aired on Spotify's Joe Rogan podcast. While we always value alternative 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."

The statement seems to imply that Crosby, Stills and Nash are pulling each of their solo projects from Spotify as well. The streaming service has lost several major musical acts in recent weeks over Rogan's podcast, and these musicians are trying to enlist more. In his own tweets on Wednesday, Crosby tried to convince Taylor Swift to join in the protest.

"The reason for wanting to speak with Miss Swift is that she is the only one who has successfully kicked Spotify's ass," he wrote. "The only one. I think she could give us good advice. This isn't over."

So far Swift has not responded, but other musicians involved in the protest include Nils Lofgren, India Arie and Joni Mitchell. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle also issued a statement condemning COVID-19 misinformation without calling out Rogan directly. The couple has a $25 million deal with Spotify to produce podcasts of their own.

Deals like that are no small part of why these musicians are angry, and why they are not hesitating to pull their music from the platform. As the band Eve 6 explained in a Twitter thread, deals like the one Spotify reached with Rogan and the royals are vastly disproportionate to the rates at which Spotify pays musicians. There is little financial incentive for an artist to keep their music on Spotify if its business practices conflict with their morals.

So far, Spotify has pledged to put a disclaimer on any podcast that discusses COVID-19 and to direct listeners to official sources of information. Protesters like Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young do not seem to think that's enough. 

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