Neil Young Slinks Back Onto ‘Low Res Spotify’ — Ending Joe Rogan Boycott

Photo Credit: Tobias Akerboom

Two years after boycotting Spotify by removing his music, Neil Young is returning to the platform. He says that’s because Joe Rogan is no longer exclusive.Neil Young pulled his music from Spotify over disinformation spread by The Joe Rogan Experience podcast regarding the COVID-19 vaccines. Now the singer says since every platform has the podcast, he may as well rejoin. “Spotify, the #1 streamer of low res music in the world…will now be home of my music again,” Young writes on his website.

“My decision comes as music services Apple and Amazon have started serving the same disinformation podcast features I had opposed at Spotify,” he continues. “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.”

Neil Young says he hopes his return to Spotify will help improve sound quality. “I hope all you millions of Spotify users enjoy my songs! They will no all be there for you except for the full sound we created,” Young says.

“Hopefully Spotify will turn to Hi Res as the answer and serve all the music to everyone. Spotify, you can do it! Really be #1 in all ways. You have the music and the listeners! Start with a limited hi-res tier and build from there!”Young’s suggestion is something Spotify has teased for the past three years, though no higher resolution audio tier has presented itself. At first Spotify flirted with calling it Spotify HiFi, but Apple’s embrasure of spatial audio as a base-tier feature for Apple Music left Spotify scrapping those plans entirely.

Now something called Spotify Supremium has been kicking around in surveys and rumors online—but nothing has surfaced yet. Instead, Spotify appears to be focused on competing with Audible’s audiobook dominance rather than offering hi-res music streaming to its listeners.