Neil Young returns to ‘low res’ streamer Spotify after Joe Rogan boycott
Folk-rock legend Neil Young announced his return to Spotify — more than two years after the “Ohio” singer pulled his catalogue because he refused to be on the same platform as Joe Rogan.
Young, 78, and several other artists had joined a boycott of Spotify after accusing the popular podcaster — and the platform’s highest-paid star — of spreading false information about the COVID-19 vaccines.
In a notice shared to The Neil Young Archives on Tuesday, the “Heart of Gold” singer said that his decision to return to Spotify “comes as music services Apple and Amazon started serving the same disinformation podcast features I had opposed at SPOTIFY.”
Young didn’t explicitly name Rogan in the announcement, titled “My Return to Low Res Spotify.”
“I cannot just leave Apple and Amazon, like I did Spotify, because my music would have very little streaming outlet to music lovers at all, so I have returned to Spotify,” he wrote.
Spotify recently locked Rogan into another “multiyear” contract reportedly worth as much as $250 million.
Young also took the opportunity to take a jab at Spotify’s audio quality, where he said that users “get less quality than we made.”
Young continued: “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.”
According to audio testing company Sound Guys, Spotify Premium, its more expensive subscription tier, contains “more detail to its sound” than its free plan, which includes ads. However, it does not offer high resolution, or “HiFi,” listening.
Though Spotify teased that a HiFi plan is in the works back in 2021 — promising listeners CD-quality lossless audio format on your phone, desktop, and Spotify Connect-enabled speakers — it has yet to actually become available.
“Hopefully Spotify will turn to HiRes as the answer and serve all the music to everyone. Spotify, you can do it!” Young wrote. “You have the music and the listeners!!!! Start with a limited HiRes tier and build from there!”
On Wednesday, Young’s artist profile was back on Spotify, touting the blue “verified” checkmark that declares it’s really him.
It appears that his profile has picked up just where it left off — displaying that he has 3.6 monthly listeners with top songs like “Journey Through the Past” and “My Back Pages” amassing more than 10 million streams.
Representatives for Spotify did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
When Young first pulled his music from Spotify, he wrote an open letter that was later deleted bashing Spotify for “potentially causing death to those who believe the disinformation being spread by them.”
In response, Rogan said in an Instagram video that his podcast had been “accused of spreading dangerous information,” insisting that he tried to host guests with differing opinions.
Addressing Young’s boycott, Rogan said he’s “always been a Neil Young fan” and said he was “very sorry” to Spotify that they were “taking so much heat” as a result of his show.
