Neil Young urges Spotify employees to quit while slamming company's CEO

Canadian-American singer Neil Young has now urged Spotify employees to quit in the wake of the fallout involving popular podcaster Joe Rogan.

The controversy spiralled from the podcaster's use of his platform to air COVID-19 misinformation, to his earlier, frequent use of a racial slur on his show. According to Variety, Young has targeted Spotify CEO Daniel Ek as the company's chief problem.

In a post on his Neil Young Archives site, Young wrote, "To the musicians and creators in this world, I say this: You must be able to find a better place than Spotify to be the home of your art. To the workers at Spotify, I say Daniel Ek is your problem, not Joe Rogan. Ek pulls the strings. Get out of the place before it eats up your soul. The goals stated by Ek are about numbers, not art, not creativity."

In the two weeks since Young asked for his music to be removed from the platform, Ek has made several awkward statements on the issue, all of which said that he does not plan to silence or cancel Rogan, who has the No. 1 rated show on the platform, via a reported USD 100 million deal with Spotify.

Ek has stayed firm, even as the controversy expanded with the release of a video compiling multiple instances of the popular podcaster using the N-word on his show. The podcast host has apologized for both situations, particularly the latter.

In a letter to the Spotify staff over the weekend, Ek announced the company would be investing USD 100 million in "marginalized" groups, although he did not specify exactly how that money would be spent. He has also confirmed Spotify will attach disclaimers to podcasts covering topics such as COVID-19.

Young was the first major artist to remove his music from Spotify in protest of Rogan and the COVID misinformation spread on his Spotify-exclusive podcast. Artists such as Joni Mitchell, Graham Nash and India Arie soon followed.