Congratulations to Neil Young. He canceled himself.
The 76-year old Canadian folk singer and former music star in the U.S. felt bold on Monday but humiliated by Wednesday.
You’ve probably heard how he told Spotify that they had a choice to make; either the No. 1 podcast in the world, the Joe Rogan Experience would have to go, or Spotify would have to take his music off their platform if they didn’t acquiesce to his bizarre and poorly thought out threat.
Spotify actually did Young a favor by not laughing in his face. Instead, they graciously waited a couple of days after he wrote his open letter and then told him to pound bricks. They kept the guy they were paying $100 million for the exclusive license to air his popular show.
Young’s naivety was on full display because how could he possibly think Spotify could do anything but go with Rogan? Here’s a bit of information for any other aging folk singers who think they could do better than Young against Spotify – Rogan’s show brings in $1 million in ad revenue per show. Minimum. It wasn’t a tough choice.
Podcasting is the wild west, and the boldest and most daring podcasting companies that aren’t afraid of taking a risk or angering a washed-up singer who hasn’t been relevant in decades are going to win this war. Spotify has boldly drawn a line in the sand and declared they are in the podcasting game to win it.
And it’s not like Spotify isn’t afraid to take down shows that they feel go against their editorial standards when it comes to Covid issues; they’ve removed 20000 episodes since the pandemic began.
It will be interesting to see what the outcome would be if a singer who’s actually popular now were to try the same stunt, and in this wacky wokey world we all live in now, I expect it will happen pretty soon.
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