Over the decades, Young has made the news for indicting: MTV’s corporate ties musical peers including Eric Clapton, Michael Jackson and the Rolling Stones for earning millions selling their music for commercials record mogul David Geffen’s market-driven tastes Monsanto and corporate control of family farms the owner of Lionel trains for announcing its closure (Young ended up buying the company) the sonic inferiority of compact discs and the ways in which tech companies have been willing to compromise on audio quality for bigger profit margins.

Many of them just put themselves in other people’s hands - and then feel frustrated that things aren’t turning out right.” “A lot of artists are weak when it comes to their own direction and their own future. “Artists are manipulated by business all the time,” Young told a British radio interviewer in 1992, of his approach to handling his affairs. In issuing the statement, Young, 76, was commencing the most recent campaign in a decades-long artistic battle against corporate media and power structures that value profits over art. Not both.” Not long after, Spotify abided by his request and removed Young’s entire discography. “I am doing this because Spotify is spreading false information about vaccines - potentially causing death to those who believe the disinformation being spread by them,” Young wrote, concluding, “They can have Rogan or Young.

When Neil Young announced he was pulling his entire discography from music streaming giant Spotify over the platform’s alliance with podcaster and vaccine skeptic Joe Rogan, the beloved singer-songwriter explained in an open letter that he was taking a moral stand.

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