#FESTIFY BAD GATEWAY FREE#

It seemed like a natural issue for firebrand Young to tackle, and it’s one that has been in the public eye for quite some time. The letter was also noteworthy for what it omitted: the ongoing controversy about how little Spotify compensates musicians who earn far less than Young does. There would be no #DeleteSpotify if he had come out of the gate with the letter, shown below:

#FESTIFY BAD GATEWAY FREE#

Young also buried the lead - a passionate articulation of his position on free speech - at the end of the note. Most people who stream music don’t care about the compression of sound on Spotify. He has been raging against the evils of digital sound for years, taking all streaming services (not just Spotify) to task in the process.īut the January 28 letter diluted his message and made him come across as an out-of-touch elitist.

That Young would complain about the sound degradation was entirely consistent with his brand. You just have to leave Spotify and go to a new place that truly cares about music quality.” Switch to one of the alternatives - companies that support the arts. SPOTIFY is ripping you off and has been since day 1. AMAZON, APPLE MUSIC and Quobuz now deliver the real thing. He wrote, “AMAZON, APPLE MUSIC and Quobuz deliver up to 100% of the music today and it sounds a lot better than the s - y degraded and neutered sound of SPOTIFY. The letter was a confusing and poorly written diatribe that seemingly elevated sound fidelity in the digital age to the same level of importance as free speech. On January 28, Neil Young posted a public letter in which he doubled down on his stance on Joe Rogan and curiously reintroduced a longstanding beef he has had with how streaming services degradate sound quality of music. Both said they wanted their music removed from Spotify in solidarity with Young. Two notable musicians followed Neil Young’s lead, including the beloved Joni Mitchell and guitarist Nils Lofgren. It was also certainly possible that Spotify’s stock was affected by a January slump across the tech sector, political instability in the Ukraine, and a ripple effect caused by Netflix’s disappointing earnings report. It was certainly possible that skittish investors were selling their Spotify stock for fear of a boycott and the possibility that other musicians would make similar demands. In fact, Spotify’s stock price had lost 45 percent of its value over the past year amid a general market pullback, disappointing financial results, a slowdown in subscriber growth, and a declining market share. The decline was widely attributed to the Neil Young controversy even though the cause-effect wasn’t as clearcut as the popular narrative would have us believe. #DeleteSpotify began trending as customers (we don’t know how many) ditched Spotify. Robert Malone had been condemned widely by physicians. Spotify was cast as a villain for siding with Rogan, whose December interview with vaccine skeptic Dr. Young, who had more than 6 million monthly Spotify listeners, was hailed as a hero and brave tilter of windmills for taking a stand although he was also accused of being a censorious person. Please act on this immediately today and keep me informed of the time schedule.”īy January 26, Spotify responded by dropping Neil Young’s music and keeping Joe Rogan’s podcast. 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. “They can have Rogan or Young,” he wrote in an open letter on his website (which he later deleted). Young angrily demanded that his record label and management team take Young’s music off Spotify unless Spotify dropped Joe Rogan’s content. The Joe Rogan Experience has been accused of spreading misinformation about the coronavirus and vaccines. So when, on January 24, he criticized Spotify for hosting the controversial podcast The Joe Rogan Experience, no one who knows what Neil Young stands for was surprised. He’s built a loyal following through his music and a personal brand that embodies the hippie idealism and social consciousness of the 1960s.

He was the 11th-highest paid musician in 2021, pulling down $78 million as a result of selling half his song catalog to Hipgnosis. At age 78, he keeps cranking out new music and taking care of business. Neil Young is both an artist (whose work I admire and listen to often) and a multimillion-dollar brand. Case in point: Neil Young versus Spotify.

When your brand takes a stand, brace for impact.

Festify bad gateway