In January 2022, I felt hopeful. Neil Young and Joni Mitchell had pulled their extensive back-catalogues from Spotify after the influential podcaster Joe Rogan spread vaccine misinformation on the streaming platform. On The Joe Rogan Experience, one of the world’s most popular podcasts, then hosted exclusively on Spotify, Rogan promoted baseless conspiracy theories about the Covid-19 vaccine. Young, who had polio as a child and has long been a proponent of vaccination, would not allow his music to sit alongside such misinformation. “They can have Rogan or Young. Not both,” the musician said.
Two days after Young’s songs had vanished from Spotify, so had Joni Mitchell’s. “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,” said Mitchell, who also suffered from polio as a child.
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