Spotify Lost More Than $2 Billion Last Week Amid Joe Rogan Controversy
The financial fallout from Neil Young's boycott has hit the streaming service hard.
Spotify's stock price took an absolute battering last week.
The streaming service attracted headlines around the world for agreeing to remove Neil Young's music.
The Harvest Moon singer accused podcaster Joe Rogan and his guests of spreading Covid-19 and vaccine misinformation and didn't want to share a platform with him.
Spotify adhered to the musician's request and the majority of his tracks were taken down by the end of the week.
As this was happening, the share price was falling hard.
Between January 26 to 28, it fell 6 per cent, according to Variety. which equates to around US$2.1 billion.
Before the close on Friday (January 28), the share price fell to a 52-week low of US$164.41 before recovering slightly to $172.98.
The hashtags #CancelSpotify, #DeleteSpotify and #ByeSpotify were trending on social media as many users jumped on the anti-Rogan bandwagon.
According to NBC, Spotify's share price has fallen 26 per cent since the beginning of the year.
Before the Neil Young fallout, a group of 270 scientists, doctors and experts wrote to Spotify about their concerns for Rogan's podcast.
Their letter said: "With an estimated 11 million listeners per episode, JRE, which is hosted exclusively on Spotify, is the world's largest podcast and has tremendous influence,
"Spotify has a responsibility to mitigate the spread of misinformation on its platform, though the company presently has no misinformation policy."
It will be interesting to see how the share price plays out over the next few days.
Since Friday's close, Bruce Springsteen guitarist Nils Lofgren and Joni Mitchell have also asked for their tracks to be deleted.
Best-selling author Brene Brown said she also won't release any more podcasts as long as Rogan is on Spotify.
Even Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have raised concerns about pandemic misinformation being aired on the platform.
In an effort to combat the heat, the company has since revealed it will be slapping a content advisory on podcasts that discusses either Covid-19 and the vaccine.
Neil Young has since spoken out about the fiasco and said he's not calling for Rogan to be removed from Spotify.
"I support free speech. I have never been in favor of censorship," he said. "Private companies have the right to choose what they profit from, just as I can choose not to have my music support a platform that disseminates harmful information.
"I am happy and proud to stand in solidarity with the front line health care worker who risk their lives every day to help others."
Featured Image Credit: AlamyTopics: Entertainment, joe rogan, Neil Young, Spotify
Stewart Perrie