Spotify Lost More Than $2 Billion in Market Value After Neil Young Pulled His Music Over Joe Rogan’s Podcast

[Vince Evert]

Spotify’s market capitalization fell about $2.1 billion over a three-day span this week, coming after folk rocker Neil Young yanked his songs from the audio-streaming giant to protest Joe Rogan’s misinformation-spreading podcast.


Shares of Spotify fell 6% from Jan. 26-28. Over the same time period, the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose 1.7% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.1%. For the sake of comparison, Netflix’s stock recovered a bit, up 4.9% over the last three days, after getting hammered following its Jan. 20 earnings report.

Spotify stock closed Thursday (Jan. 27) at a 19-month low of $171.32/share. That came after Young said Monday that he was demanding the company drop his music, saying that Spotify “can have Rogan or Young. Not both.” Spotify removed Young’s songs on Jan. 26. In a post Wednesday, Young wrote that “Spotify has recently become a very damaging force via its public misinformation and lies about COVID” and referred to an open letter from doctors and health professionals issued earlier this month calling on Spotify to crack down on coronavirus-related falsehoods on “The Joe Rogan Experience.”

To be sure, Spotify’s stock price was already on the slide — having plummeted 25% year-to-date as of Jan. 25, the day before Young’s catalog was pulled off Spotify. Investors have been rattled by signals that Spotify’s growth may be slowing, particularly after Netflix’s warning of a significant cooldown in first quarter subscriber net adds (which precipitated a 24% drop in its share price).


Also, it’s worth noting is that Spotify’s stock rebounded slightly Friday, closing up 1% to $172.98/share, amid a broader market upturn. However, that came before Joni Mitchell announced that she, too, would be removing her music from Spotify. “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,” the singer-songwriter wrote.

For Spotify investors, the concern is that the artist exodus could snowball in the coming days and drive a material number of customer cancellations. Hashtags #CancelSpotify, #DeleteSpotify and #ByeSpotify were trending on social media in the wake of Young’s ultimatum and Spotify’s decision to remove his music.


Rogan, whose exclusive multiyear distribution deal with Spotify for his podcast is estimated to be worth more than $100 million, hosted the No. 1 most-listened to podcast on Spotify in 2021, according to the company. His flirtation with alt-right figures and his anti-vax and anti-masking commentary has previously drawn fire from critics — including Dr. Anthony Fauci — but the controversy over Rogan has blown up to a new level with Neil Young’s protest.


Young on Friday doubled down on his anti-Spotify stance, slamming the streamer’s audio quality as “shitty, degraded and neutered” and announcing a partnership with Amazon giving new customers to Amazon Music Unlimited four months free of the premium streamer.








A New York Times piece last July, titled “Joe Rogan Is Too Big to Cancel,” included this detail: “[A]mong top Spotify leadership, people familiar with the company say, the notion that Mr. Rogan presents any kind of regrettable executive headache is laughable.”


At this point, one wonders if Spotify execs are still chortling about the notion that Rogan is more of a liability than an asset. The company is scheduled to report Q4 2021 earnings Feb. 2 after market close.

Spotify Lost More Than $2 Billion in Market Value After Neil Young Pulled His Music Over Joe Rogan’s Podcast

Spotify's market cap fell $2.1 billion after Neil Young pulled his songs in protest of Joe Rogan's misinformation-spreading podcast.

variety.com

 

[Vince Evert]

follow up article here:

Spotify Stock Down 25% as Artists Leave Platform, Rumors of Foo Fighters Departing Swirl

In the wake of both Neil Young and Joni Mitchell leaving Spotify, the audio streaming platform’s stock has plummeted about 25%, Loudwire has reported. Videos by American Songwriter Other outlets are reporting that “Spotify loses $4 billion in market value following Neil Young controversy.” And...

americansongwriter.com

 

[Kieran]

I think stocks in general fell last week, and as the article said, "Spotify’s stock price was already on the slide — having plummeted 25% year-to-date as of Jan. 25."

What I find both mildly depressing but not unusual about the Neil Young thing is that it makes me wonder when and why rock stars became such lackeys for the establishment. Such monotonous tribalists, politically. Authoritarian, and intolerant. When did rockers stop questioning authority and start stumping for politicians? Neil Young can stop singing "Rocking in the Free World" now. He can amend it to, "Rocking in the Free World Does Not Mean Freedom From The Consequences of Rocking in the Free World."

He should listen to Ice-T, and "Freedom of Speech, Just Watch What You Say."

Claiming that Joe Rogan is spreading "misinformation and lies" only gives Neil the opportunity to show us the lies, and correct the misinformation. We're not children. We can read things and make up our own mind, while also applauding him for his stance on this, which presumably includes a stance against all government misinformation and lies as well. Instead, he issued an ultimatum, and lost. Of course, rockers having their work on Spotify in the first place is problematic, given the pittance that Spotify pay their artists. Now, there's a cause that Neil could have chosen, and been on the side of truth...

 

[Vince Evert]

What happened ? Neil's obviously a singer-songwriter icon that used to express his disdain on the commercialism of music He used to value free speech too.

 

[Federberg]

 

[Kieran]

What happened ? Neil's obviously a singer-songwriter icon that used to express his disdain on the commercialism of music He used to value free speech too.

I dunno what gets into them. He's like all the other Malibu activists and Hollywood "liberals", he's become part of a problem. Elitest. That's the term. Don't let that dastardly bastard Joe Rogan speak to guests who haven't passed the purity test, they might corrupt the stupid masses who are too thick to tell the difference between what's true or false. They're like duh literally killing people.

Basically he's become a drug pusher for Big Pharma and a useful idiot for the government...

 

[Moxie]

I think stocks in general fell last week, and as the article said, "Spotify’s stock price was already on the slide — having plummeted 25% year-to-date as of Jan. 25."

What I find both mildly depressing but not unusual about the Neil Young thing is that it makes me wonder when and why rock stars became such lackeys for the establishment. Such monotonous tribalists, politically. Authoritarian, and intolerant. When did rockers stop questioning authority and start stumping for politicians? Neil Young can stop singing "Rocking in the Free World" now. He can amend it to, "Rocking in the Free World Does Not Mean Freedom From The Consequences of Rocking in the Free World."

He should listen to Ice-T, and "Freedom of Speech, Just Watch What You Say."

Claiming that Joe Rogan is spreading "misinformation and lies" only gives Neil the opportunity to show us the lies, and correct the misinformation. We're not children. We can read things and make up our own mind, while also applauding him for his stance on this, which presumably includes a stance against all government misinformation and lies as well. Instead, he issued an ultimatum, and lost. Of course, rockers having their work on Spotify in the first place is problematic, given the pittance that Spotify pay their artists. Now, there's a cause that Neil could have chosen, and been on the side of truth...

I dunno what gets into them. He's like all the other Malibu activists and Hollywood "liberals", he's become part of a problem. Elitest. That's the term. Don't let that dastardly bastard Joe Rogan speak to guests who haven't passed the purity test, they might corrupt the stupid masses who are too thick to tell the difference between what's true or false. They're like duh literally killing people.

Basically he's become a drug pusher for Big Pharma and a useful idiot for the government...

I don't think it's fair to call Neil Young, (or Joni Mitchell,) "lackeys for the establishment." They don't draw the same conclusions you do, but they have their own opinions, it is actually possible. Mitchell had polio as a child, so one might understand why she is in favor of vaccines. You're doing a bit what you accuse them of, if you don't respect that they have an opinion that is strong, is theirs, and that they have come by legitimately, and aren't just being elitists who have lost touch. Or being "drug pushers for Big Pharma."

I have not followed Joe Rogan, but I see that he's not just some right wing nut. And he has had Sanjay Gupta on his podcast, too, so he looks for alternate opinions. I understand the frustration of those that feel that anything against the status quo on COVID and vaccines makes one a pariah, in some way, but to say that these specific people aren't standing with what they believe is unfair, IMO. Neil Young has his opinion. Eric Clapton has another. They should be allowed them.

 

[Moxie]

This was a very moderated reply to the controversy. I think it's good that he's fine with a warning on some of his more controversial conversations, and that he's going to try harder to get on "opposing opinions." It definitely sounds like he stepped into something more than he was expecting, and he had already had alternative opinions on. But totally unforced error in mistaking Ricki Lee Jones for Joni Mitchell. OK, nobody is perfect.

 

[Kieran]

I don't think it's fair to call Neil Young, (or Joni Mitchell,) "lackeys for the establishment." They don't draw the same conclusions you do, but they have their own opinions, it is actually possible. Mitchell had polio as a child, so one might understand why she is in favor of vaccines. You're doing a bit what you accuse them of, if you don't respect that they have an opinion that is strong, is theirs, and that they have come by legitimately, and aren't just being elitists who have lost touch. Or being "drug pushers for Big Pharma."

I have not followed Joe Rogan, but I see that he's not just some right wing nut. And he has had Sanjay Gupta on his podcast, too, so he looks for alternate opinions. I understand the frustration of those that feel that anything against the status quo on COVID and vaccines makes one a pariah, in some way, but to say that these specific people aren't standing with what they believe is unfair, IMO. Neil Young has his opinion. Eric Clapton has another. They should be allowed them.

I think you missed something here, sister. I like when people disagree with me. More often than not I enjoy it because it’s only by hearing another view can we be corrected, but I also enjoy the cut and trust of debate. I also don’t trust politicians to tell the truth - in this I appropriate the great BBC interrogator Jeremy Paxman’s phrase, when he was asked why he goes in so hard on politicians, he said, because I think to myself, why is this bastard lying to me. And I hope that Neil Young applies the same standard he applies to Rogan, to government, and Fauci.

So a difference between me and Neil Young is, I never try to silence anyone when they say something I don’t like. Neil Young told Spotify - you can have Neil Young or you can have Joe Rogan, but you can’t have both. It’s a threat. An ultimatum. Close that talking shop now. And he did it in the modern cry-bully way, by saying that Rogan was “potentially” killing people who believed the “lies and misinformation.”

Once Neil stated that Rogan was sharing lies and misinformation it was his place to point out the lies, but not his place to try get Rogan censored. In this, he’s behaving like a government lackey, stopping people from freely discussing the vaccines. Rogan’s guests are often highly credentialed, he doesn’t just interview wrestlers and comedians. And stopping highly credentialed people from speaking about their field of expertise is totalitarian. And more so, during a costly pandemic, where there are always many more options open to us than just one.

And Joe was right - 6 months ago if a guest had said the vaccines won’t stop you catching or spreading, if they said the vaccines won’t last 3 months, if they said you’ll have to suffer regular boosters, if they mentioned the lab leak theory - they would have been accused of spreading lies and misinformation. People were shut down for discussing these things. But they would have been right, and Neil Young would have wanted them silenced because they weren’t following the party line.

Joni having polio isn’t relevant because Rogan isn’t anti-vaccine. And also because the polio vaccine does what it claims to do. He’s opposed to vaccine mandates. He’s in favour of people choosing for themselves, he trusts his own immune system, and he’s heavily in favour of healthy lifestyles and taking the supplements that help. But he always says that people who want or need the vaccine should take it.

Rockers used to always ask questions of authority and the establishment - now you’re just as likely to see them at giant mega-rallies promoting shady politicians in big elections. It’s a pity to see, and more dangerous than Joe Rogan interviewing people..