Spotify Presents: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Rogan.
Neil Young & Joni Mitchell are out. Joe Rogan is in.
How Will this sound to Spotify listeners?
Time for a deeper look at the questions this raises?
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The following is NOT printed on this postcard.
Spotify is a giant corporation running a popular music streaming business. They also offer Podcasts to listeners. Recently, Spotify paid Joe Rogan hundreds of millions to be the exclusive host for his Podcast.
Neil Young objected, in part due to the misinformation related to the Pandemic on some of Rogan's podcasts. As an act of protest, he pulled his music off of Spotify. Joni Mitchell and numerous other musicians have also pulled their music. Since the famous super-group was known as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, this card is making a joke about what has happened in the conflict between Neil Young and Spotify.
This is also an opportunity to look at some of the deeper issues here. What is the responsibility of an Social Media Platform when if comes to hosting mis-information on any topic?
Perhaps more importantly, why does Spotify pay so little to the music artists who supply the music it depends on? The result of this practice leaves many musicians in a bind. They want their music to be heard, yet they can no longer make a living from their music. This streaming service has gotten really big, but with this financial model, it is not sustainable. Many musicians have pointed this out in great detail. And at the same time that they pay so little to the music artists, they can pay millions to Joe Rogan.
This is even before we look at the issue of Surveillance Capitalism as practiced by Spotify, Facebook and so many others these days. Many users of Spotify are not aware of how much they monitor the musical preferences of its listeners to sell them to advertisers. And what these practices are leading to. So this brings up lots of issues which may not have easy answers, but are important for people to look at and think about.
