Joe Rogan Reacts to Neil Young's Return to Spotify

Spotify has won its battle against musician Neil Young, who tried to have podcaster Joe Rogan expelled from the platform. Young withdrew his music from the platform in 2022, accusing the streaming service of spreading misinformation about COVID-19 by hosting the podcaster's show, "The Joe Rogan Experience."

On Thursday, Rogan addressed Young's return during a conversation with writer and political commentator James Lindsay. While noting Young's reasoning that since other platforms were also hosting his show, Spotify was the logical choice, Rogan laughed and remarked, "Great to know you've got some ethics."

Rogan's use of his platform to share COVID-19 misinformation led a group of 270 scientists and healthcare professionals to call on Spotify in January 2022 to take action against the spread of misinformation. Spotify responded by stating that it would publish its platform policy regarding the promotion of medical information and add a content advisory to any podcast episode that includes a discussion about COVID-19.

However, the streaming service did not remove The Joe Rogan Experience as Young had demanded. This resulted in Young departing Spotify along with a few other artists, including Joni Mitchell and Nils Lofgren.

This week, however, Young announced that he has returned to Spotify, citing the expansion of Rogan's show onto other streaming platforms as the reason for his return. Young stated, "I cannot just leave Apple and Amazon, like I did Spotify because my music would have very little streaming outlet to music lovers at all." He expressed his sincere hope that Spotify would improve its sound quality and allow people to hear the music as it was made.

Rogan also addressed the situation on Instagram, stating that while he intended to balance out controversial viewpoints with other perspectives, he was not angry at Young's initial stance.