Much has been said over the past few days about musician Neil Young demanding his music was taken off Spotify due to false Covid information allegedly being broadcast by their $100million podcaster Joe Rogan. A few of you have asked what my view is on it – so I’ll tell you.

I have never listened to a single podcast from Joe Rogan. Running this blog alongside everything else I do means I simply don’t have the time – so I have no idea what his show is like. But what I do know is they’re paying him $100million, so the idea Spotify were going to side with Neil Young over their own star signing was always absurd.

I also think this is an unfortunate distraction from a far bigger story involving Spotify – the fact they’ll soon be sponsoring Barcelona FC. The deal hasn’t been officially announced yet, but sports journalists who are covering the story are citing it’ll be worth around $380million over a five year period.

If true, this is quite astonishing. Spotify are currently in the middle of a legal battle to pay as little as possible in royalties for songwriters from 2023. The case will almost certainly have to be resolved soon, which leaves a question of why Spotify are fighting this in the first place.

Because if they can afford to spend $380million on a football sponsorship deal, they can afford to pay songwriters more than they do at present. Daniel Ek’s utterly irrational hatred for the industry which made him a multi-billionaire continues…