Crosby, Stills & Nash are back on Spotify, five months after making their exit from the streaming service in protest of the platform’s supposed promotion of COVID misinformation. The group’s Spotify boycott began back in February, following in the footsteps of their former bandmate Neil Young.
Young was the most prominent artist to abandon Spotify. He specifically called out The Joe Rogan Experience podcast for making heavily-debunked claims in regards to the COVID pandemic. “They can have Rogan or Young,” Young said in a statement at the time. “Not both.” The likes of Joni Mitchell and India.Arie joined the boycott.
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – ‘Woodstock’
“We support Neil and we agree with him that there is dangerous disinformation being aired on Spotify’s Joe Rogan podcast,” Crosby, Stills & Nash wrote in a statement explaining their solidarity. “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.”
However, while Young and Mitchell remain absent from Spotify, the vast majority of the Crosby, Stills & Nash catalogue has returned, including several Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young releases, such as 1970’s Deja Vu. As Pitchfork reports, the group’s return is due to platform-wide changes that have been made by Spotify.
In a statement released by Graham Nash, the singer explains that Spotify has “taken a positive step by adding a Covid content advisory to podcasts that include a conversation about Covid, directing listeners to a Covid information hub”. Elsewhere, the statement explains that the group will be donating all revenue from their first month back on the platform to charity.
Despite this, it appears as though it might not be a group-wide decision to return to Spotify. David Crosby explained on Twitter that the choice was not made by him. A fan asked Crosby, “Why is your music back on Spotify?” to which he replied, “I don’t own it now and the people who do are in business to make money.”
I don’t own it now and the people who do are in business to make money https://t.co/TwyI2z2y1w
— David Crosby (@thedavidcrosby) July 2, 2022
Further Reading
Neil Young Set To Release 2001 Crazy Horse Album, Toast
James Blunt Warns Spotify He’ll Release New Music If Joe Rogan Isn’t Removed
