Don't call it a comeback: as of Saturday (July 2), the catalogue of Crosby, Stills & Nash (David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash) has returned to Spotify and is available to stream on the platform for the first time since February.
Five months ago, the trio requested their labels remove their music from the streaming giant in support of former bandmate Neil Young's crusade against Spotify's propagation of vaccine misinformation through Joe Rogan's dangerously popular podcast, for which the platform serves as the exclusive host.
"[Spotify] can have Rogan or Young," Young wrote in an open letter on January 24. "Not both." A few days later, Spotify announced its plans to add content warnings to podcasts discussing COVID-19 — although Rogan insists that his episodes are "just conversations."
Following Nash's lead, the three-piece released a statement on February 2 announcing their decision to remove their music from the streamer.
"We support Neil and we agree with him that there is dangerous disinformation being aired on Spotify's Joe Rogan podcast," Crosby, Stills & Nash had written at the time. "While we always value alternate points of view, knowingly spreading disinformation during this global pandemic has deadly consequences. Until real action is taken to show that a concern for humanity must be balanced with commerce, we don't want our music — or the music we made together — to be on the same platform."
As per Billboard, the band reportedly plan to donate at least a month's worth of streaming proceeds to unspecified COVID-19 charities upon their music's return. Which is nice! But we also know how abysmal Spotify's per-stream payout is for artists, so here's helplessly hoping that there are some avid CSN fans in the mix. (Phoebe Bridgers will decidedly not be among them.)
India.Arie, Joni Mitchell and Crazy Horse/E Street Band member Nils Lofgren also joined the Spotify exodus spearheaded by Young.
Five months ago, the trio requested their labels remove their music from the streaming giant in support of former bandmate Neil Young's crusade against Spotify's propagation of vaccine misinformation through Joe Rogan's dangerously popular podcast, for which the platform serves as the exclusive host.
"[Spotify] can have Rogan or Young," Young wrote in an open letter on January 24. "Not both." A few days later, Spotify announced its plans to add content warnings to podcasts discussing COVID-19 — although Rogan insists that his episodes are "just conversations."
Following Nash's lead, the three-piece released a statement on February 2 announcing their decision to remove their music from the streamer.
"We support Neil and we agree with him that there is dangerous disinformation being aired on Spotify's Joe Rogan podcast," Crosby, Stills & Nash had written at the time. "While we always value alternate points of view, knowingly spreading disinformation during this global pandemic has deadly consequences. Until real action is taken to show that a concern for humanity must be balanced with commerce, we don't want our music — or the music we made together — to be on the same platform."
As per Billboard, the band reportedly plan to donate at least a month's worth of streaming proceeds to unspecified COVID-19 charities upon their music's return. Which is nice! But we also know how abysmal Spotify's per-stream payout is for artists, so here's helplessly hoping that there are some avid CSN fans in the mix. (Phoebe Bridgers will decidedly not be among them.)
India.Arie, Joni Mitchell and Crazy Horse/E Street Band member Nils Lofgren also joined the Spotify exodus spearheaded by Young.
