Crosby, Stills & Nash music returns to Spotify

Music returned on July 2nd

The music of Crosby, Stills & Nash has returned to Spotify, five months after David Crosby, Graham Nash, and Stephen Stills requested the songs be removed in support of Neil Young protesting the platform over Joe Rogan spreading “fake information” about COVID-19 on his podcast. The music returned on July 2nd with at least the first month of proceeds being donated to COVID-19 charities, according to Billboard.

A Twitter user asked Crosby why his music was back on the platform.

“I don’t own it now and the people who do are in business to make money,” Crosby replied.

The removal of Crosby’s music was a surprise and bold one since Crosby had sold his catalog a year before. In March 2021, the GRAMMY-winning artist sold his publishing and recorded music rights to Irving Azoff’s Iconic Artists Group which included his solo work, as well as his work with The Byrds; Crosby & Nash; Crosby, Stills & Nash; and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

In February, the group shared a joint statement in regards to supporting Young, “We support Neil and we agree with him that there is dangerous disinformation being aired on Spotify’s Joe Rogan podcast. While we always value alternate points of view, knowingly spreading disinformation during this global pandemic has deadly consequences. Until real action is taken to show that a concern for humanity must be balanced with commerce, we don’t want our music – or the music we made together – to be on the same platform.”

In January, Young shared an open letter to his team demanding the streaming giant remove either his music of Rogan’s podcast, which has been under fire for the “spread of misinformation” regarding the COVID-19 vaccines. Spotify honored Young’s request and his music is still largely off the platform as of this writing.

Buddy Iahn
Buddy Iahn

Buddy Iahn founded The Music Universe when he decided to juxtapose his love of web design and music. As a lifelong drummer, he decided to take a hiatus from playing music to report it. The website began as a fun project in 2013 to one of the top independent news sites. Email: info@themusicuniverse.com