Spotify removes Neil Young

monquixote

Redlester said:

I do not know this Rogan bloke's work, but what I have heard about it doesn't sound good. What I've read here makes him come across as being symptomatic of many of the ills of our age. 

He might be symptomatic of many of the ills of our age, but he's not in one way which I think makes him quite interesting and explains some of his popularity.

He is often accused of being alt right, but he actually has quite a selection of political views which don't neatly align with democrats, republicans, libertarians, etc. 

He's quite socially liberal on some issues, conservative on others, he's hyper macho, but he will unashamedly cry on his show. 

Given how closely a lot of people align and identify to republican/trump, or democrat positions on everything with no room for shades of gray I think it makes him quite a refreshing character to a lot of people.

Quite close to Arnold Schwarzenegger in that regard.

BTW none of this means I support him spreading vaccine misinformation and I haven't listened to his show in years.

Philly_Q

@DrCornelius Point taken.  I don't really like them either, in principle, but realistically I'm not going back to buying tons of CDs - and the rest of the world certainly isn't - so I'll be sticking with Spotify for now.

ewal

I hate the fact I recently started use Spotify because it's convenient, YouTube music is shite, and I'm too lazy to resurrect my mp3 library.

Having gone through the death of Google Music, I know that relying on a streaming service is not reliable, if you want to have a music collection.

poopot

Reading that article… Neil young has pulled his stuff… not Spotify removing it for him…

Spotify said it "regrets" the move and hopes he returns to the platform soon.

or am I getting the wrong end of the stick?

axisus

I hate Spotify. I hope they implode ASAP.

Kittyfrisk

poopot said:

Reading that article… Neil young has pulled his stuff… not Spotify removing it for him…

Spotify said it "regrets" the move and hopes he returns to the platform soon.

or am I getting the wrong end of the stick?

Nope, spot on. He pulled his work, Spotify complied/called his bluff depending on your viewpoint.

VimFuego

we live in a bizarre age, it seems I can know who Rogan is and what he does and says without ever seeing anything he's ever said or done. It's all very meta I guess.

poopot

Kittyfrisk said:

poopot said:

Reading that article… Neil young has pulled his stuff… not Spotify removing it for him…

Spotify said it "regrets" the move and hopes he returns to the platform soon.

or am I getting the wrong end of the stick?

Nope, spot on. He pulled his work, Spotify complied/called his bluff depending on your viewpoint.

So the thread title and the bbc article should actually have the headline.

“neil young removes his material from Spotify in protest

i don’t like Spotify or Daniel ek but c’mon it’s not their fault is it?… if Neil young wants to pull his stuff that’s up to him… 

spotify have just complied with the rights holders request… as they are legally obliged to do!!!!

in fact… Neil young is being totally unreasonable demanding that they remove the other bloke imo… regardless of what the other bloke says or does!…

jacob

I don't really like Joe Rogan. I think he makes money from hosting quacks and frauds, and is gaming the system.

jacob

VimFuego said:

we live in a bizarre age, it seems I can know who Rogan is and what he does and says without ever seeing anything he's ever said or done. It's all very meta I guess.

He's really not someone you want to know. To be honest if you know who he is and what he does and says without ever seeing anything he's ever said or done... that's a bit of a puzzle.

yorkio

Philly_Q said:

I don't listen to podcasts but presumably Spotify also have podcasters who express views the opposite of Joe Rogan's, so there is some degree of balance?  

I’m pretty sure they’ve not got any pro-science podcasters on a $100 million exclusive contract like they’ve got Joe Rogan on.

Philly_Q

yorkio said:

Philly_Q said:

I don't listen to podcasts but presumably Spotify also have podcasters who express views the opposite of Joe Rogan's, so there is some degree of balance?  

I’m pretty sure they’ve not got any pro-science podcasters on a $100 million exclusive contract like they’ve got Joe Rogan on.

You make a good point.  I didn't realise until earlier this evening that they were paying him a fortune.  In fact I had no idea Spotify "employed" people in that way.

stickyfiddle

TTony

VimFuego said:

we live in a bizarre age, it seems I can know who Rogan is and what he does and says without ever seeing anything he's ever said or done. It's all very meta I guess.

I was going to say that creative artistry has been replaced with the cult of personality.

But thinking about it, that's probably not entirely fair.

I guess both are in the entertainment business, using their skills and self-promotional abilities to  create an audience for their "art".  Being - largely - a community of creative artists, we might appreciate and put more value on Neil Young's approach to entertainment, but we're not the majority of the potential audience ...

Have we dumbed-down the standard of entertainment, or have we just made it more accessible to the masses, either to consume  it, or to produce it?

Evan

Redlester said:

Philly_Q said:

I'm not a big Neil Young fan, although I do like some of his stuff, so in terms of availability of music this is only mildly annoying.

I'm more bothered that it sets a precedent.  I can't imagine anyone anticipated streaming services becoming politicised, such that people would want their content removed because of ideological opposition to someone else who's on there.

Here we all are, dumping our physical media because "everything's available online".  What if some of it just disappears, for reasons like this or something similar, and that's it, gone forever?

I know, most things are going to be available somewhere else, be it Apple, Amazon or wherever.  But that may not always be the case.  And anyway, who wants to subscribe to all of them?

Sounds like the plot of a JG Ballard short story or novel. 

I do not know this Rogan bloke's work, but what I have heard about it doesn't sound good. What I've read here makes him come across as being symptomatic of many of the ills of our age. 

There’s the problem right there, you know sod all about Joe Rogan except what you’ve heard from other people, most of whom know sod all about Joe Rogan except  what they’ve heard from other people. Also, he commits the crime of talking to people of all political and cultural persuasions in good faith - for some strange reason, some people don’t like that.

thecolourbox

I say good on Neil Young if he's not happy about being on there, I have no interest in the other chap and only found out Spotify did podcasts the other day anyway so I suspect I'm more Young's target audience than Rogan's anyway.

People getting all het up about him being ViCtImIsEd for being controversial need to calm down in my opinion. It's only like Joe Bloggs not wanting to go to a specific pub because Rowdy Dave is always there.

Edit: thinking about it, I imagine there's probably also a subtext element of "if they can pay one person $100m to chat shit then surely they can pay musicians more than a thousandth of a cent per song"

Coldfingers

Wouldn't it have been better if Neil Young had gone on the JR show and put forward a coherent argument as to why JR was in the wrong over this?

FWIW, I have more Neil Young albums than any other artist but I think his approach has been all wrong over this.

Jota

Coldfingers said:

Wouldn't it have been better if Neil Young had gone on the JR show and put forward a coherent argument as to why JR was in the wrong over this?

FWIW, I have more Neil Young albums than any other artist but I think his approach has been all wrong over this.

It makes total sense.
"Hey, your show is a POS, let me go there tell you why I don't like it, can I?"

Coldfingers

Jota said:

It makes total sense.
"Hey, your show is a POS, let me go there tell you why I don't like it, can I?"

Or a quiet behind the scenes approach (I'm sure NY has the resources/contacts to do it), "Hey I disagree with your view on this, how about inviting me on so that we can discuss an alternative viewpoint".

I do realize that's not a fashionable approach these days though...

Snap

Neil Young was never going to win this, and he shouldn't - no single artist should have the power to tell a massive thing like Spotify how to curate what they publish. It should be up to the subscribers.

I don't listen to Rogan. I do listen to Neil Young though.