Neil Young returned to Spotify at some point. Now the songwriter no longer wants to be represented on Amazon Music.
Neil Young is once again targeting a streaming service: The singer announced that his music will “soon” disappear from Amazon Music.
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In a new entry on his blog Neil Young Archives wrote Young: “The time has come. FORGET AMAZON. Soon my music won’t be found there anymore. It’s easy to shop locally. Support your community. Go to the corner store. Don’t go back to the big corporations that sold out America.”
The 79-year-old combined his boycott threat with a call for his fans to stop frequenting companies like Amazon, Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp) and Whole Foods.
Neil Young blocks Facebook, Instagram and X
Most recently, Young deactivated his accounts on Facebook and Instagram because he found Meta’s alleged “unreasonable” use of chatbots with children scandalous. He said goodbye to X at the end of 2023 after new owner Elon Musk shared an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory.
The singer on his reasoning for the boycott call: “We all have to sacrifice something to save America from the age of corporate control it is entering. They want you to buy from them. Don’t do that. They are crippling our government, endangering your income, your safety and the health of your family.”
Young continued: “Let’s take back America together, let’s stop buying from the big corporations. Let’s support local companies. Let’s do the right thing. Let’s show who we are.”
Neil Young already proved that he was serious about his Amazon Music announcement in January 2022 when he had his entire catalog removed from Spotify almost overnight and also got other friends, such as Joni Mitchell, to join him. The reason back then was Joe Rogan’s podcast, which was broadcast exclusively on Spotify to an audience of millions.
At the time, the musician accused Rogan and Spotify of spreading untruths about the corona pandemic. When Rogan’s podcast was made available on other streaming services, Young returned – not without being upset again about the poor sound quality on Spotify.