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Sinead Butler
Jan 28, 2022
Spotify Removes Neil Young's Music After Joe Rogan Claims
IndyTV
Spotify customers who contacted customer service live chat on Thursday (January 27) ended up receiving support from a robot rather than a person after the streaming service was inundated with complaints.
This occurred in the same week the Swedish-based streaming service made headlines after rock legend Neil Young slammed Joe Rogan, host of The Joe Rogan Experience, which was the most popular podcast on Spotify in 2021.
In a since-deleted open letter he criticised Rogan for sharing "false information" about Covid on his podcast and “potentially causing death to those who believe the disinformation being spread by them”.
Young delivered an ultimatum to Spotify, telling the music platform to choose between him or Rogan.
In the end, Spotify chose to support Rogan's podcast, with Young deciding to remove his music from the platform and since then, people have taken to social media to announce they are boycotting Spotify over this decision.
I stand with Neil Young. Spotify can have Joe Rogan. I\u2019m cancelling Spotify immediately. What about you?— This requires more coffee. (@This requires more coffee.) 1643244219
Spotify chose Joe Rogan over Neil Young. \n\nI\u2019ll choose Apple Music over Spotify.— Jack Cocchiarella (@Jack Cocchiarella) 1643299814
It is done. I look forward to supporting a music service that values artists over jackasses like Joe Rogan. Thanks to #NeilYoung for showing the way. #cancelspotifypic.twitter.com/6a7VXDVm66— It's James and the Awful Truth (@It's James and the Awful Truth) 1643254264
The fact that @Spotify chose Joe Rogan over Neil Young is absolutely disgusting.— Sari Beth Rosenberg (@Sari Beth Rosenberg) 1643236774
siding with joe rogan over neil young has to be history\u2019s greatest Lhttps://twitter.com/THR/status/1486449675217604612\u00a0\u2026— rax \u2018skifree monster fetishist\u2019 king (@rax \u2018skifree monster fetishist\u2019 king) 1643237717
Meanwhile, those wanting to contact Spotify's customer service via a live chat were met with a message (time-stamped at 1:42 p.m. Pacific time on Thursday) informing users there may be a slow response, Newsweekreported.
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The bots help users with any issues they have and if necessary would refer them to a human customer service support worker, but didn't give an exact time as to how long this would take.
"We're currently getting a lot of contacts so may be slow to respond. For quicker help, search our support articles or visit community help (currently only in English)," is the message that customers were met with.
In response to Young's decision to remove his music from the platform, a Spotify spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday: "With that comes great responsibility in balancing both safety for listeners and freedom for creators. We have detailed content policies in place and we've removed over 20,000 podcast episodes related to COVID since the start of the pandemic.
"We regret Neil's decision to remove his music from Spotify, but hope to welcome him back soon."
indy100 has contacted Spotify for comment.
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