Apple Music Dubs Itself 'Home of Neil Young' After Spotify Ultimatum Fails: 'We Love Neil'

Tech giant Apple has made an attempt to attract more users to its music streaming platform by advertising itself as the “home of Neil Young,” after Young’s music was removed from Spotify after the company refused Young’s demands to censor Joe Rogan from the platform.

The Verge reports that Apple is taking Neil Young’s side after the notoriously cranky rocker demanded that Spotify remove podcaster Joe Rogan from its platform claiming that Rogan, who has interviewed guests such as virologist Dr. Robert W. Malone and cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough, is spreading “covid misinformation.”

Neil Young performs at Farm Aid 30 at FirstMerit Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island on Saturday, Sept. 19, 2015, in Chicago. (Photo by Rob Grabowski/Invision/AP)

Announcer Joe Rogan reacts during UFC 249 at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena on May 09, 2020 in Jacksonville, Florida. (Photo by Douglas P. DeFelice/Getty Images)

Earlier this week, Young published an open letter to Spotify stating: “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.”

Spotify chief Daniel Ek (Drew Angerer /Getty)

“I want you to let Spotify know immediately TODAY that I want all my music off their platform,” he continued. “They can have Rogan or Young. Not both.”

Spotify responded by promptly removing Young’s music from the platform. In a statement, a Spotify spokesperson said: “We want all the world’s music and audio content to be available to Spotify users. 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-19 since the start of the pandemic.”

Now, Apple is attempting to capitalize on the removal of Young’s catalog from Spotify by sending out tweets, playlists, and push notifications branding itself as the “home of Neil Young.”

Apple has been blatant about this marketing move, even placing a playlist of Neil Young music at the top of its “browse” section titled “We Love Neil.”

Since his failure to have Rogan removed from the platform, Young has attempted to rally other artists to join him in cutting off a significant amount of their listening audience by ditching the streaming platform. On his website, Young called Spotify a “very damaging force,” and added: “I sincerely hope that other artists and record companies will move off the Spotify platform and stop supporting Spotify’s deadly misinformation about Covid.”

Around 60 percent of the streaming of Young’s music worldwide came from Spotify. Young noted this adding that he was “losing 60% of my world wide streaming income in the name of Truth.” Before his content was removed from Spotify, Young had 2.4 million followers and over six million monthly listeners on Spotify.