James Blunt has taken to Twitter to call out Spotify, weighing in on the coronavirus controversy surrounding Joe Rogan's podcast.
The Bonfire Heart singer has added to the backlash which first began when Neil Young decided to pull his music from the platform over fears of misinformation about vaccines being spread by Joe Rogan's podcast.
Joni Mitchell similarly decided to remove her music from Spotify and released a statement standing in solidarity with her fellow Canadian singer. Now, Blunt has had his say on the matter.
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Rogan's podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, is not only exclusive to Spotify but was number one worldwide on the platform in 2021, with an 'estimated 11 million listeners per episode,' as per Rolling Stone.
However, the host has come under fire for allegedly spreading misinformation about the coronavirus vaccine. Despite claiming to not be anti-vaxx, in one episode, Rogan reportedly told 21-year-olds to refrain from getting vaccinated, Today reports.
Moreover, in an open letter to complain about Rogan, Mitchell noted a particular episode which saw virologist Dr Robert Malone state that he thought Americans had been 'hypnotised' by mask regulations and into receiving their vaccinations, NBC reports.
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Taking to Twitter to weigh in on the issue, Blunt stated: 'If @spotify doesn’t immediately remove @joerogan, I will release new music onto the platform. #youwerebeautiful.'
The post has since amassed over 18,000 likes, 2,000 retweets and 400 comments, with users flooding to the statement in debate over the issue. One said: 'Congratulations Mr Blunt. You have won the Internet!'
Another wrote: 'I get it JB but we live in a world of freedom of speech. If he’s wrong he’s wrong but if the world stops both sides from being told we’ll be in North Korea.'
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A third commented: 'He owns the f*cking thing bro. Blunt for prime minister lol.'
Spotify has yet to respond to Blunt or Mitchell's statements, however in reply to Young's open letter and call to have his music removed from the platform, it stated: 'We want all the world’s music and audio content to be available to Spotify users. With that comes great responsibility in balancing both safety for listeners and freedom for creators. We have detailed content policies in place and we’ve removed over 20,000 podcast episodes related to COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.'
However, the platform concluded by noting that it hoped to 'welcome [Young] back soon'.
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Poppy Bilderbeck