Nils Lofgren, a member of Neil Young & Crazy Horse and Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, is the third high-profile artist to pull his music from Spotify in protest of the platform’s spread of COVID disinformation.
“A few days ago, my wife Amy and I became aware of Neil and Daryl [Hannah] standing with hundreds of health care professionals, scientists, doctors and nurses in calling out Spotify for promoting lies and misinformation that are hurting and killing people,” Lofgren wrote in a statement posted to the Neil Young Archives. “When these heroic women and men, who’ve spent their lives healing and saving ours, cry out for help you don’t turn your back on them for money and power. You listen and stand with them.”
“As I write this letter, we’ve now gotten the last 27 years of my music taken off Spotify. We are reaching out to the labels that own my earlier music to have it removed as well,” Lofgren added. “We sincerely hope they honor our wishes, as Neil’s labels have done, his.”
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Lonfren also encouraged fellow musicians to join him, Young, and Joni Mitchell “to stand with us all, and cut ties with Spotify.”
“Music is our planet’s sacred weapon, uniting and healing billions of souls every day. Pick up your sword and start swinging. Neil always has. Stand with him, us (Joni Mitchell!) and others. It’s a powerful action you can all take now, to honor truth, humanity, and the heroes risking their lives every day to save ours.”
On Wednesday, at Young’s request, Spotify removed his music from its catalog. Days earlier, the singer-songwriter issued an open letter to his management and record label demanding that his music be taken down from Spotify due to the streaming service’s spread of “fake information about vaccines.” Young specifically took issue with Spotify’s promotion of the Joe Rogan Experience, which has become a breeding ground for false COVID information. “I want all my music off their platform. They can have Rogan or Young. Not both,” Young wrote.
Mitchell followed suit on Friday, writing in a statement: “I’ve decided to remove all my music from Spotify. 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.”
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