Social media is lighting up amid signs that Neil Young's music has returned to Spotify — those claims are right… and wrong.
While some of the singer-songwriter's music is, indeed, available on Spotify, Reuters said he has not "returned," as claimed. Instead, the only Neil Young music on Spotify is from movie soundtracks or other events that featured him but were released by other entities. Neil's Spotify page is still largely barren and is not a complete list of his catalog, which spans nearly 60 years.
For instance, Neil's "Heart of Gold" is available on the streaming service, but that's because it was on the "Eat, Pray, Love" soundtrack.
Last month, the "Rockin' in the Free World" singer ignited a firestorm when he demanded that his songs be removed from Spotify over his issues with Joe Rogan, whose hugely popular podcast, "The Joe Rogan Experience," is hosted by the streaming service. Neil claimed Joe spreads misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines and he didn't want his music on the same platform. Neil essentially issued an ultimatum: his music or Joe's podcast.
Spotify chose Joe on Jan. 26, and the vast majority of Neil's music (other than the soundtrack songs) was removed. Several artists followed suit, but many in entertainment supported Joe, citing free speech.
On Jan. 30, Spotify issued a statement revealing minor changes to its policies on content concerning the coronavirus, including that it was "working to add a content advisory to any podcast episode that includes a discussion about COVID-19."
Amid all this, Joe apologized in a 10-minute video on Instagram.
"I will do my best to try to balance out these more controversial viewpoints with other people's perspectives so we can maybe find a better point of view," he said. "I don't want to just show the contrary opinion to what the narrative is. I want to show all kinds of opinions so we can all figure out what's going on and not just about COVID, about everything, about health, about fitness, wellness, the state of the world itself."