Five months after pulling their music off of Spotify in protest of COVID-19 misinformation by Joe Rogan, Crosby, Stills & Nash have returned to the streaming service.
According to Billboard, the folk rock trio will donate proceeds from their streaming revenue to COVID-19 charities for at least a month. CSN has originally pulled their music from Spotify in support of longtime collaborator Neil Young, whose music is still not available on Spotify after he demanded his music be pulled on January 24 after Joe Rogan hosted COVID vaccine skeptics Dr. Robert Malone and Dr. Peter McCullough on his podcast.
“We support Neil and we agree with him that there is dangerous disinformation being aired on Spotify’s Joe Rogan podcast,” the band said in a statement back in February. “While we always value alternate points of view, knowingly spreading disinformation during this global pandemic has deadly consequences. 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.”
Spotify responded to the boycotts by introducing advisories on COVID-19 information on their service and adding content warnings to any podcast, including Rogan’s, that discussed COVID-19 or its vaccine. In an Instagram video, Rogan said that his decision to have vaccine skeptics on his podcast was part of his intent to interview people of various viewpoints.
“I’m not trying to promote misinformation, I’m not trying to be controversial,” Rogan said. “I’ve never tried to do anything with this podcast other than to just talk to people.”