Just days after Neil Young’s unexpected return to Spotify, Joni Mitchell has also seen her music reappear on the streaming platform.
This move comes more than two years after both artists removed their catalogs from Spotify in protest of what they perceived as the platform’s amplification of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation.
Young announced in January 2022 that he was pulling his music from the streaming platform over its hosting of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast.
Mitchell followed Neil Young’s lead and announced a few days later that her music would also be pulled from the platform.
“Irresponsible people are spreading lies that are costing people their lives. I stand in solidarity with Neil Young and the global scientific and medical communities on this issue,” Mitchell wrote in a blog post at the time.
While Spotify acknowledged the importance of content moderation, CEO Daniel Ek at the time maintained the company’s commitment to welcome views from different people and opinions on either side of issues.
“A decade ago, we created Spotify to enable the work of creators around the world to be heard and enjoyed by listeners around the world,” Ek wrote in a blog post two days after Mitchell announced that she was pulling her music from the platform.
“Personally, there are plenty of individuals and views on Spotify that I disagree with strongly… it is important to me that we don’t take on the position of being content censor while also making sure that there are rules in place and consequences for those who violate them,” Spotify’s chief added.
Now, Mitchell’s classics such as A Case of You and California from her 1971 album Blue are back on Spotify.
Mitchell hasn’t yet released a statement about the reversal. Spotify has also remained tight-lipped on the matter.
For Young, his decision arrived as The Joe Rogan Experience podcast is no longer exclusive to Spotify, and is now available on numerous streaming platforms. Young stated that his previous boycott of Spotify specifically is no longer justified.
“My decision comes as music services Apple and Amazon have started serving the same disinformation podcast features I had opposed at Spotify,” Young wrote.
“I cannot just leave Apple and Amazon, like I did Spotify, because my music would have very little streaming outlet to music lovers at all, so I have returned to Spotify, in sincere hopes that Spotify sound quality will improve and people will be able to hear and feel all the music as we made it.”
Spotify still has yet to offer hi-res lossless audio, unlike its rivals like Amazon Music, Apple Music, Deezer and TIDAL.
The return of Mitchell’s music to Spotify follows the iconic artist’s performance of Both Sides Now at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards with musicians Brandi Carlile, Allison Russell, Lucius, Jacob Collier, Blake Mills and SistaStrings. Mitchell also won a Grammy for Best Folk Album for Joni Mitchell At Newport [Live].
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