The ultimatum between music and podcasts has come to a close on the Spotify platform.
In case you missed it, here's a lowdown of what happened.
A few days ago, a letter was posted to Neil Young's website addressed to his label requesting the removal of his songs from Spotify.
The reasons behind this move were aimed at the Joe Rogan Podcast and the topics covered by the commentator.
“I am doing this because Spotify is spreading fake information about vaccines — potentially causing death to those who believe the disinformation being spread by them,” Mr. Young wrote, according to Rolling Stone.
“Please act on this immediately today and keep me informed of the time schedule.”
“They can have [Joe] Rogan or Young. Not both.”
Young’s letter was addressed to his manager and a Warner executive.
It comes after hundreds of professors, scientists and public health professionals asked Spotify to develop a policy to better handle misinformation surrounding Covid-19 on its platform.
In a letter published online, the experts honed in on a specific episode of "The Joe Rogan Podcast" published on New Years Eve 2021 that had Dr Robert Malone as a guest.
The collective of health professionals said that Dr Malone promoted “several falsehoods about Covid-19 vaccines.”
“By allowing the propagation of false and societally harmful assertions, Spotify is enabling its hosted media to damage public trust in scientific research and sow doubt in the credibility of data-driven guidance offered by medical professionals,” the letter said.
It also said Spotify should “immediately establish a clear and public policy to moderate misinformation on its platform.”
Fast-forward to what Spotify has to say about the situation.
The streaming platform said it has tried to achieve balance and removed over 20,000 podcast episodes related to COVID since the beginning of the pandemic.
"We want all the world's music and audio content to be available to Spotify users," the company said in a statement.
"With that comes great responsibility in balancing both safety for listeners and freedom for creators."
"We regret Neil's decision to remove his music from Spotify, but hope to welcome him back soon."
The Joe Rogan Experience podcast was bought by Spotify in 2020 for a reported $100 million (£77m).
Since then, it has grown to be the top-rated podcast on the platform but along with that, a lot of people against it.
