James Blunt has jokingly threatened to release new music if Spotify doesn’t cut ties with Joe Rogan.
Blunt’s quip comes amid the ongoing battle between the Swedish streaming company and musicians Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, who have removed their music catalogues the platform over its $100m (£74.5m) exclusivity contract with Rogan for his podcast The Joe Rogan Experience.
Young had issued an ultimatum to Spotify and had asked that his music be deleted from the platform on Monday (24 January) over its affiliation with the podcast, which he said spreads “false information” regarding Covid-19 vaccines.
“They can have Rogan or Young. Not both,” the 76-year-old musician had written in a since-deleted letter that was posted to his website and had addressed his management team at LookoutManagement and Warner Bros.
Two days later, Spotify complied with Young’s request to remove his music, drawing widespread online criticism from the musician’s fans.
On Friday (28 January), Mitchell announced that she was pulling her music from Spotify “in solidarity” with Young and “the global scientific and medical communities on this issue”.
The “River” singer shared her decision in a statement titled “I Stand With Neil Young” that didn’t name Rogan directly, but referenced “irresponsible people” who are “spreading lies that are costing people their lives”.
Light-heartedly commenting on the Spotify controversy, Blunt’s tweet, posted on Saturday (29 January). read: “If @Spotify doesn’t immediately remove @JoeRogan, I will release new music onto the platform.”
The singer also added the hashtag #youwerebeautiful, a cheeky reference to his popular 2005 song “You’re Beautiful”.
Meanwhile, fellow musician Barry Manilow has shut down rumours that he will be removing his music from Spotify, after it was suggested he would follow in Young’s footsteps.
The “Copacabana” singer said in a tweet that he did not know where the reports had come from, but they had not come from himself or his representatives.
