It seems that a Neil Young vs Joe Rogan debate is about to commence at the offices of powerhouse audio streaming service Spotify.
Long-time UFC broadcast analyst Rogan is a beloved figure in the MMA community. His boss — UFC President Dana White — has praised him as a key figure in the promotion’s massive success, and his voice is synonymous with the brand’s content. However, over the last three years, he has become a divisive personality outside combat sports circles.
The decades-long comedian has become a mainstream success with his Joe Rogan Experience podcast. The long-running series banked Rogan a $100 million dollar payday from Spotify in 2020 and has become the most listened to podcast in the world. The show’s popularity has come from trying to cover all sides of various social and sports topics. However, in pushing different points of view on COVID-19 treatments and vaccines Rogan has been labeled by many as spreading misinformation.
Rogan’s controversial opinion on the subject led to a recent open letter from 270 medical experts to the streaming service about “false and harmful assertions” being promoted by the UFC announcer on the podcast. Although they did not formally request Rogan’s removal from the service, it seems that music legend Neil Young is.
Neil Young vs Joe Rogan? Spotify has a decision to make
Neil Young Murat Indianapolis
In a now-deleted open letter to his record label and management team, the 76-year-old slammed the popular podcast and plainly asked Spotify to drop the show, or lose access to his catalog of hit songs.
“I am doing this because Spotify is spreading fake information about vaccines — potentially causing death to those who believe the disinformation being spread by them. Please act on this immediately today and keep me informed of the time schedule. I want you to let Spotify know immediately TODAY that I want all my music off their platform,” Young wrote.
“They can have [Joe] Rogan or Young. Not both. With an estimated 11 million listeners per episode, JRE, which is hosted exclusively on Spotify, is the world’s largest podcast and has tremendous influence. Spotify has a responsibility to mitigate the spread of misinformation on its platform, though the company presently has no misinformation policy.”
Rogan has publicly questioned the usefulness of COVID-19 vaccines as the global pandemic caused by the virus continues to rage on for a third straight year.
Young has sold over 75 million records during his over six decades in the music industry.
What do you think Spotify will do? Will they choose Young or Rogan?
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