Folk legend Joni Mitchell has made headlines once again, this time for an unexpected about-face on her stance regarding Spotify.
Mitchell's music, which she had pulled from the streaming platform in protest two years ago, has now made a return, marking a significant reversal in her previous position, with Mitchell perhaps realizing that her protest of Spotify wasn't as well thought-out as she once believed.
The 80-year-old artist joined forces with Neil Young in 2022 to boycott Spotify over its distribution of the Joe Rogan Podcast, which they claimed propagated false information about COVID-19. This came after Rogan hosted several experts on the vaccine with whom Young and Mitchell disagreed with, instead siding with big pharma and their mouthpieces.
Mitchell, in an open letter on her website, condemned the podcast for promoting "baseless conspiracy theories" and "false" assertions that undermined scientific research.
Mitchell accused Spotify of enabling the spread of "baseless conspiracy theories" with a "history of broadcasting misinformation, particularly regarding the COVID-19 pandemic."
"I’ve decided to remove all my 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," she said in a statement at the time.
However, Mitchell's recent decision to reintroduce her music to Spotify comes as a surprise to some. This move follows Neil Young's own return to the platform earlier this month, citing concerns about the dissemination of low-quality audio and the limited streaming options available to music lovers.
In a statement, Young referred to Spotify as the "#1 streaming of low res music in the world."
"My decision comes as music services Apple and Amazon have started serving the same disinformation podcast features I opposed at SPOTIFY," he wrote.
He continued, "I cannot just leave Apple and Amazon, like I did with Spotify, because my music would have very little streaming outlet to music lovers at all. So I have returned to Spotify, in sincere hopes that Spotify sound quality will improve and people will be able to hear and feel all the music as we made it."
