Are Bruce Springsteen, Queen, Pearl Jam and Dave Grohl all removing their music from Spotify in solidarity with Neil Young? No, that's not true: Only Joni Mitchell actually did remove her music from the music streaming service in support of Young and his protest against Spotify podcaster Joe Rogan spreading COVID-19 misinformation. The rest on the list still have their music on Spotify as of this writing.
The claim appeared as an article published by CelebNMusic247 on January 30, 2022, titled "Springsteen; Pearl Jam; Dave Grohl; All Remove Music From Spotify!" (archived here), which opened at the time of writing with:
Springsteen; Queen; Pearl Jam; Dave Grohl; All Remove Music From Spotify! Neil Young has the support of rock heavyweights to #DeleteSpotify
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail at the time of writing:
Springsteen; Pearl Jam; Dave Grohl; All Remove Music From Spotify!
Springsteen; Queen; Pearl Jam; Dave Grohl; All Remove Music From Spotify! Neil Young has the support of rock heavyweights to #DeleteSpotify
The article cites this tweet for the information:
🚨 Breaking 🚨
-- Goth Brooks (@fortylittleking) January 29, 2022
Willie Nelson, Bruce Springsteen, Barbra Streisand, Queen, Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, Dave Grohl, Joni Mitchell, Pearl Jam
are removing their music from Spotify in solidarity with Neil Young!!! 😂 #Spotify can keep the fascists. #DeletedSpotify
Spotify removed Neil Young's music at his request as a protest over Joe Rogan's podcast "The Joe Rogan Experience" spreading COVID-19 misinformation. One episode with Dr. Robert Malone was criticized by over 200 professors and public health officials. Lead Stories has debunked multiple false claims by Malone about COVID.
Singer Joni Mitchell is the only person on the list from the tweet who followed suit and removed her music in solidarity with Young.
Nils Lofgren, Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band guitarist, also pulled his music from Spotify but Springsteen did not.
Spotify released a statement on January 30, 2022, titled, "Spotify's Platform Rules and Approach to COVID-19." It read, in part:
We are working to add a content advisory to any podcast episode that includes a discussion about COVID-19. This advisory will direct listeners to our dedicated COVID-19 Hub, a resource that provides easy access to data-driven facts, up-to-date information as shared by scientists, physicians, academics and public health authorities around the world, as well as links to trusted sources. This new effort to combat misinformation will roll out to countries around the world in the coming days. To our knowledge, this content advisory is the first of its kind by a major podcast platform.
Rogan released a statement on January 30, 2022, saying he promised to "do better" in his podcast:
