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Neil Young is bringing his music back to Spotify more than two years after requesting its removal from the platform, the singer-songwriter announced Tuesday (March 12).
In January 2022, Young published an open letter asking Spotify to remove its catalog, citing what he called the spread of vaccine misinformation on the popular platform. Joe Rogan Experience podcast, which was later hosted exclusively on the streaming platform. Several other artists, including Joni Mitchell, Indie.Arie and Young’s Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young bandmates David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash, followed suit, although CSN/CSN&Y and Arie’s music has since has been restored to service; Mitchell’s catalog remains absent.
in a new post On his Neil Young Archives website, the legendary artist said the end of Spotify’s exclusive deal with Rogan led to the decision to restore his music to the service. “My decision comes as Apple and Amazon music services have begun offering the same misinformation podcast features I opposed on Spotify,” the post says, a clear reference to the Joe Rogan Experiencealthough Young never mentions him by name.
“I can’t just leave Apple and Amazon, like I did with Spotify, because my music would have very little streaming output for music lovers, so I’ve returned to Spotify, sincerely hoping that Spotify’s sound quality improves.” and people can hear and feel all the music the way we made it,” Young continued, before mentioning Qobuz and Tidal, where his catalog is also located, as “high-resolution” streaming options.
Young concludes his post by expressing his hope that Spotify “turns to high resolution as an answer and offers all music to everyone. Spotify, you can do it! To truly be number one in every way. You have the music and the listeners!!!! Start with a limited high resolution level and build from there!
Spotify announced plans to roll out a HiFi tier in February 2021, although those plans have not yet come to fruition. In June 2023, Bloomberg reported that the streaming giant would finally launch the product later this year, but the company declined to comment when contacted by Billboard – and the calendar passed without the level materializing.
Young has long been an advocate for hi-res audio, and even launched his own (now defunct) hi-res audio download platform, Pono, in 2015 before shutting it down two years later.
In September, Billboard estimated that the absence of Young’s catalog from Spotify had cost him approximately $300,000 in lost recorded music and publishing royalties up to that point.
At press time, Young’s music catalog had yet to be restored on Spotify, which did not immediately respond to BillboardRequest for comments.