Of course it was an attempt at censorship by Young. We can get hung up on the details of whether his actions were “technically” censorship or not, but his intent was clear. He did not simply (and honorably) walk away from Spotify in protest; he gave them an ultimatum…me, or Rogan. There is no doubt in my mind that Young, due to the typical overblown sense of self importance held by some artists, especially the aging ones in search of relevance, was shocked (to say the least) that Spotify would choose Rogan over him. Then, being unsuccessful, he doesn’t stop there. Now he is encouraging those working for Spotify to jump ship and leave their place of employment so as to “save their souls”. Really? Overblown sense of self importance.
Neil Young calls out Tidal
TIDAL is calling their files of my songs Masters. But TIDAL’s MQA files are not my masters. I make my masters - not TIDAL. I made my masters the way I wanted them to sound. If TIDAL referred to their titles as TIDAL MASTERS, I would have no problem, but they don’t. They call them Masters. I had my music removed from that platform. They are not my masters.”.
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