Legendary musician Neil Young recently pulled his entire discography from Spotify over concerns about its part in the spread of COVID disinformation.
What’s the beef?
Along with a consortium of medical experts, Young isn’t happy about Spotify’s hosting of the Joe Rogan Experience, an extremely popular podcast that is infamous for its controversial and potentially harmful views on topics including COVID-19 hoaxes and vaccine disinformation.
“They can have Rogan or Young,” he said in a (now deleted) open letter to Spotify. “Not both.” Spotify chose Rogan, and Young’s music has been promptly removed from the platform.
How is Apple involved?
With Neil Young’s many albums remaining on other streaming platforms, Apple Music has been quick to capitalize on the situation, playfully trolling Spotify in a rare opportunity to one-up its music rival.
Apple Music is now calling itself the “home of Neil Young” and is heavily promoting the singer’s music, featuring his songs in various sections of Apple Music and even adding a new category called “We Love Neil”.
It’s also using the opportunity to cross-promote Spatial Audio, a relatively new feature of Apple Music that’s compatible with Young’s latest album.