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posted by martyb on Monday January 31 2022, @08:29AM   Printer-friendly

[Ed note: I've provided a brief list of alternative sources for streaming free music and podcasts at the end of this story. Please help out your fellow Soylentils by mentioning your favorite Soundcloud alternative in the comments. --martyb]

Joni Mitchell joins Neil Young in ditching Spotify over COVID misinformation:

Joni Mitchell has turned up the volume on demands for music and podcast streamer Spotify to address misinformation on its platform. Joining protests by a group of medical professionals and by rocker Neil Young, the iconic singer-songwriter says she plans to pull her work off Spotify over false claims about COVID-19 vaccines.

"I've decided to remove all my music from Spotify," Mitchell said Friday in a brief post on her website. "Irresponsible people are spreading lies that are costing people their lives. I stand in solidarity with Neil Young and the global scientific and medical communities on this issue."

l...] Young sparked a #DeleteSpotify movement earlier this week when he yanked his catalog off the service and cited a letter by more than 250 doctors, nurses, scientists and educators who criticized Spotify and its most popular podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, for spreading vaccine misinformation.

In her post, Mitchell, the artist behind songs like Big Yellow TaxiHelp Me and A Case of You, included a link to that same letter. It calls out an episode of Rogan's podcast that featured virologist and vaccine skeptic Dr. Robert Malone, points to a critical post about Malone on fact-checking site PolitiFact, and urges Spotify to establish a policy on misinformation.

Joni Mitchell joins Neil Young in having her music pulled off Spotify:

The famed Canadian singer-songwriter who's been turning out hits we all know — like "The Circle Game" — since the '60s has officially joined Neil Young in calling for her music's removal from the streaming service. Like the "Heart of Gold" writer and singer, Mitchell is fed up with Spotify's willingness to support podcasters like Joe Rogan who perpetuate lies and incomplete truths about COVID-19, among other things.

Rogan's podcast has been kicking around since 2009, but it notably became a Spotify exclusive in Dec. 2020. That's why the recent pushback against Spotify has so squarely centered the controversial actor-turned-influential blowhard.

"I've decided to remove all my music from Spotify," Mitchell wrote on Jan. 28 under the headline "I Stand With Neil Young!" in a brief post on her website. "Irresponsible people are spreading lies that are costing people their lives. I stand in solidarity with Neil Young and the global scientific and medical communities on this issue."

While she doesn't single out Rogan by name, the post does conclude with a link out to "An Open Letter to Spotify." The document, which is signed by "a coalition of scientists, medical professionals, professors, and science communicators" that includes more than 250 people, repeatedly points to The Joe Rogan Experience podcast as a source of COVID misinformation throughout the pandemic.

Joni Mitchell joins Neil Young; pulls music in Spotify protest:

Joni Mitchell said she is seeking to remove all of her music from Spotify in solidarity with Neil Young, who ignited a protest against the streaming service for airing a podcast that featured a figure who has spread misinformation about the coronavirus.

Mitchell, who like Young is a California-based songwriter who had much of her success in the 1970s, is the first prominent musician to join Young's effort.

"Irresponsible people are spreading lies that are costing people their lives," Mitchell said on Friday in a message posted on her website. "I stand in solidarity with Neil Young and the global scientific and medical communities on this issue."

Following Young's action this week, Spotify said it had policies in place to remove misleading content from its platform and has removed more than 20,000 podcast episodes related to COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.

[...] But the service has said nothing about comedian Joe Rogan, whose podcast The Joe Rogan Experience is the centerpiece of the controversy.

Spotify support buckles under complaints from angry Neil Young fans:

Neil Young was mad. Now his fans are, too, and they're telling Spotify about it.

Earlier this week, Young had asked the music-streaming service to remove his music from its library in response to COVID misinformation aired on Joe Rogan's podcast, which is available only on Spotify. "I want you to let Spotify know immediately TODAY that I want all my music off their platform," Young wrote on his website. "They can have Rogan or Young. Not both."

[...] For Young and his fans, the hit was palpable, and his fans are apparently taking their frustrations out on Spotify. The hashtag #SpotifyDeleted trended on Twitter yesterday, and fans seem to have inundated customer support with so many messages that Spotify has had to take it offline at times.

"We're currently getting a lot of contacts so may be slow to respond," a large red banner has read on the support page. Options to message the company, which have previously included live chat with a customer support agent or a chat bot, are now limited to an email address link.

Spotify stock tanks. Spotify shuts down their customer service lines. Thousands of listeners complain and cancel subscriptions over Spotify's decision to support Joe Rogan and the misinformation he broadcasts, over Neil Young's music. pic.twitter.com/pjvMm7pYVQ

— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) January 28, 2022

Music Streaming Services:

Are you looking for an alternative Music Streaming Services to replace Spotify? A quick search brought me to alternative.to. They have ~100 alternatives, the few first of which were:


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  • (Score: 2) by Pav on Tuesday February 22 2022, @05:07AM (7 children)

    by Pav (114) on Tuesday February 22 2022, @05:07AM (#1223811)

    You don't seem to want to realise no mainstream source will ever give you a reason to believe anything that would make you less willing to pay taxes to defence companies. Perhaps you own some shares, or feel you benefit in some other way? I suppose it IS within the realm of possibility, though only by cosmic accident. It IS strangely fascinating and amusing talking to someone who is a true believer in the broken window fallacy (probably in the form of post WWII parables).

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  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday February 22 2022, @01:29PM (6 children)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday February 22 2022, @01:29PM (#1223883) Journal

    You don't seem to want to realise no mainstream source will ever give you a reason to believe anything that would make you less willing to pay taxes to defence companies.

    There are several things broken about this statement. First, it's a story not an argument. None of this is even remotely relevant to the correctness of my arguments in this thread. For example, yes or no: does Russia indeed have a huge military build up on the Ukrainian border? Did Russia just move troops into Ukrainian territory? Did Russia sign a treaty back in the 1990s that it would respect the borders of the Ukraine?

    No matter my beliefs or the nature of my media sources, we still have the problems that I've noted (such as Russia's behavior for years) and which you steadfastly refuse to disagree with. It's a particularly weak ad hominem fallacy. And at best, you just describe a bias of some media. Biased media can and does still reveal truth.

    Second, it demonstrates a deep flaw in your viewpoint. This story is more important to you than reality. Even when I try to steer to productive discussion you keep reverting to this stagnant narrative. This is just an elaborate form of confirmation bias combined with a huge inability to think outside your box. It's worse than outright discounting sources for terrible reasons. You're not even paying attention to reality in the first place.

    Third, you've repeatedly parroted terrible propaganda. By terrible, I mean half-assed. It's some of the laziest crap I've ever seen. Like the neo-Nazis running the Ukraine narrative you've pushed. When we actually look, rather than just swallow your sad propaganda on faith, we do indeed find a few neo-nazis, but not many. Certainly not enough to control the Ukrainian government or rationalize the many harms that Russia has inflicted on the Ukraine. Perhaps, if you're going to complain about my media sources, you should take these beams out of your own eyes first?

    • (Score: 2) by Pav on Wednesday February 23 2022, @07:42PM (5 children)

      by Pav (114) on Wednesday February 23 2022, @07:42PM (#1224232)

      Lets have the Russians start supplying Cuba with missile systems (definitely not nuclear!), or perhaps overthrowing the Mexican government so it can join CETO...and then start shelling Tijuana when the US citizens try to break away to form their own republic after anti-US violence. We all know how that would go. You don't sound smart for trying to lawyer something like that, especially in view of actual history.

      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday February 23 2022, @09:25PM

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 23 2022, @09:25PM (#1224259) Journal
        Go for it. Let's see if you're right. My take is that it'll be part of the documentary about how Putin's Russia went wrong.
      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday February 24 2022, @01:08PM (3 children)

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Thursday February 24 2022, @01:08PM (#1224457) Journal
        So now that Russia has invaded the Ukraine rather than the other way around, you have anything to add?
        • (Score: 2) by Pav on Friday February 25 2022, @04:30AM (2 children)

          by Pav (114) on Friday February 25 2022, @04:30AM (#1224736)

          Well, even though I have a Ukrainian grandfather (and last name) and a Crimean Russian grandmother (or did until not so long ago) my partner has better connections with that part of the world. Her brother studied and lived for a while in Ukraine, and is now in Moscow. She spoke to him maybe 12 hours ago about this, and apparently the people he knows are sad about the war but believe it was absolutely necessary. Apparently Putin has been unpopular for maybe five years... before that people had his picture on their walls, in their cars etc... then he was repressing opposition and then there was covid so his popularity was in the dumps. Now focus has completely shifted focus to this war. Unsure what it has done to Putins popularity, but his actions are supported. The people my partners brother knows are in Moscow, a place with lots of well off government employed people, and his crowd is a young crowd... so really not a representative sample of Russia, but it is what it is. Perhaps I was laughing at you for supporting this with your tax dollars, but it looks like the western world as a whole will be paying for this failure of diplomacy... massive premiums on petrochemicals and agricultural goods. Bill Gates and his friends were pretty smart for buying up all that farmland when they did.

          • (Score: 1) by khallow on Friday February 25 2022, @08:13PM (1 child)

            by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Friday February 25 2022, @08:13PM (#1224933) Journal
            You clean up nice when you speak from the heart. Sorry, I consider the vast majority of what you've written here just parroting vile propaganda. You'd be better served to think your own arguments.

            Her brother studied and lived for a while in Ukraine, and is now in Moscow. She spoke to him maybe 12 hours ago about this, and apparently the people he knows are sad about the war but believe it was absolutely necessary. Apparently Putin has been unpopular for maybe five years... before that people had his picture on their walls, in their cars etc... then he was repressing opposition and then there was covid so his popularity was in the dumps. Now focus has completely shifted focus to this war. Unsure what it has done to Putins popularity, but his actions are supported.

            The thing is, what can the rest of the world do about that? Putin found himself an external enemy to rally the public against. Did anyone ask the Ukraine if they wanted to be the bad guy? What will happen in a year or two when Putin needs a new enemy to keep the heat off himself? Who is next?

            Sorry, these people show the tricks of the trade work: find an enemy, preferably weak; demonize them; and then ruthlessly exploit that to keep the public off your back.

            For example, while watching Al Jazeera, I caught a bit of Putin in a press conference talking about Ukrainian neo-nazis or fascists hiding behind innocent civilians. It was a classic demonization move. Hitler couldn't have done better. And that's one of the big concerns about this whole thing for me. The only people acting like Nazis are the Russian government: lying horrible about the military buildup as a war game, ruthless invasion far in excess of any Just War goal, repeated demonization of the foe as if that can justifies the war by itself, etc. I can't help but notice in the last few weeks that the "MIC propaganda" was far more accurate than the Russian side was. Western governments may be notoriously economical with the truth, but they spoke truly then.

            My advice: look at actions not labels. The US has had Nazis, the real kind, since before the Second World War. That didn't make the US Nazi. Instead it has a fairly free democracy for 75 years since. Lots of bad actions and mistakes, but while there are some who do better, Russia isn't one of them.

            but it looks like the western world as a whole will be paying for this failure of diplomacy...

            Don't blame diplomacy for this mess. There's no indication that diplomacy would have had any effect on the troop deployment and invasion. My bet is that the timing of the invasion was driven by two factors: the demonstrated weakness of the US following its withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the completion of Nord Stream 2 pipeline work. Even with sanctions, it's extremely unlikely that anyone will disrupt that pipeline now that it's been built.

            And Russia probably wouldn't have NATO troubles, if it wasn't such a nasty neighbor.

            • (Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday February 26 2022, @12:05AM

              by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday February 26 2022, @12:05AM (#1224974) Journal

              and the completion of Nord Stream 2 pipeline work.

              I think this explanation is too limited. There was probably a number of infrastructure improvements that Russia made in the last few months, of which this is one. It's like the Kiel Canal [wikipedia.org] in the First World War. The canal was an essential part of German strategy, with it a smaller German navy could create a great problem for the UK navy by concentrating their forces in either the North or Baltic seas.

              Since some sort of sanctions would be expected from Europe, infrastructure like pipelines or harbors that allow movement of petroleum and natural gas products elsewhere in the world would be a good counter. My bet is that, rather than the vagaries of diplomacy are why Putin decided to attack now.