More musicians are threatening to pull music off Spotify

Much like Meta, Spotify is having a difficult time keeping users thanks to podcast host, Joe Rogan.

Last month, musicians Neil Young and Joni Mitchell requested their music be pulled from the platform in defiance against The Joe Rogan Podcast which spread misinformation surrounding Covid.

Now, other musicians are following suit with David Crosby, Steven Stills, Graham Nash, India.Arie, Failure, Nils Lofgren, and rumored Barbra Streisand. Podcasters like Rosanna Arquette, Roxane Gray, and Mary Trump have also asked Spotify to remove their content.

Sign up for our new free Indy100 weekly newsletter

Musician India.Arie told Tamron Hall from Tamron Hall, she decided to pull her music for multiple reasons. "One is the Joe Rogan conversation, and for me his language around race and some of the things I've seen and heard, but also coupled with that, there is the treatment of artists by Spotify," she said on Friday.

It's well-known that artists are paid very little by music-sharing sites like Spotify. It was reported last year that Rogan was paid $100 million by Spotify for exclusive rights to his podcast. Meanwhile, artists receive $0.0015 per play.

Daniel Erk, CEO of Spotify, said he would not remove Rogan's podcast despite his own gripe with some of Rogan's content. Erk emphasized that Spotify is a platform and a publisher but does not have creative control over any licensed content.

The CEO said keeping Rogan's podcast was vital to achieving goals down the line since having a wide variety of content differentiates the platform from other tech companies.

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.