Irish Examiner view: Spotify has battle on its hands to regain public trust

It has work to do to assure a lot of people that their motivation is principled

The fact the spat with Neil Young and Joni Mitchell has cost Spotify an estimated $2bn in market capitalisation in the past week has obviously focused minds at Spotify. Picture: PA

In the wake of the decision by rock legends Neil Young and Joni Mitchell to remove their music from the streaming giant Spotify because of Covid misinformation on the platform, it has become obvious, yet again, that big business — big tech especially — is more concerned about profit than morality.

In the face of other artists following the example of Young and Mitchell because of fake information about vaccines — particularly on the popular The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, for which it paid $100m for exclusive rights to — Spotify
announced that it was working to add a content advisory to any podcast episode which includes a discussion on Covid-19.