What is the Spotify row? Covid rules explained as Joni Mitchell and Neil Young pull music in Joe Rogan protest

Audio streaming giant Spotify has announced a series of measures including content advisory notes in a bid to cut down on Covid misinformation on its platform.

It comes amid an ongoing row about the platform’s alleged role in spreading falsehoods around the pandemic and Covid vaccines, which has seen Neil Young and Joni Mitchell pull their music from the site.

What is the row?

Musicians have been pulling their music from Spotify over what they claim is a refusal from the streaming site to cut down on Covid misinformation on its platform.

The charge has been led by Neil Young, who objected to his songs being played on the same site that hosts the popular podcast from comedian Joe Rogan.

About 270 experts have said that a 31 December podcast featuring infectious disease specialist Dr Robert Malone promoted “several falsehoods” about Covid and the vaccination drive.

“Spotify has become the home of life-threatening Covid misinformation,” Young said on his website. “Lies being sold for money.”

Has anyone else joined in?

Singer Joni Mitchell then announced that she was following Young in demanding her music be pulled.

Mitchell said in a message shared on her website she is standing “in solidarity” with Young and the streaming giant was allowing “irresponsible people” to spread lies that were “costing people their lives”.

This weekend, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle expressed “concerns” about misinformation on Spotify, with whom they have a lucrative £18m podcast contract.

In a statement on Sunday, the Royal couple’s charity Archewell said they had raised the issue with Spotify since the charity’s inception, and continue to do so “to ensure changes to its platform are made to help address this public health crisis”.

But they haven’t said if they’ll be tearing up their deal to stand in solidarity with Young and Mitchell.

Other artists have expressed their support for Young’s decision, with Kate Nash saying she “really admire[s] Neil Young for pulling his music from Spotify.”

American country singer Margo Price added: “If all artists were as punk rock as Neil Young maybe we wouldn’t be getting absolutely screwed by corporate streaming companies.”

What is Spotify doing about it?

Spotify announced a handful of measures on Monday morning in a bid to crack down on misinformation on its platform. Under new rules, the streaming service plans to add a ‘content advisory’ warning to all podcasts which discuss Covid-19.

This will direct listeners to a new Covid-19 information hub, which contains “up-to-date information as shared by scientists, physicians, academics and public health authorities around the world, as well as links to trusted sources”.

They are also publishing the rules which they use to decide what can be posted on the platform; the body describes these as “rules of the road to guide all of our creators”.

The site admitted that it hasn’t “been transparent around the policies that guide our content more broadly”.

Spotify also said it would be looking at new ways to highlight these rules to creators “to raise awareness around what’s acceptable and help creators understand their accountability for the content they post on our platform.”

What did it say about the artist protests?

Spotify didn’t mention Young or Mitchell by name, but said that “the feedback [it had received] over the last several weeks” had made it clear that “we have an obligation to do more to provide balance and access to widely-accepted information from the medical and scientific communities guiding us through this unprecedented time”.

The site insisted that it understood it had a “critical role to play in supporting creator expression while balancing it with the safety of our users.”

“In that role, it is important to me that we don’t take on the position of being content censor while also making sure that there are rules in place and consequences for those who violate them,” CEO Daniel Ek said in a statement.

Mr Ek insisted that Spotify had “been biased toward action” during the pandemic, making educational resources and campaigns and donating to vaccine awareness and distribution.