India.Arie to Remove Music From Spotify Due to Joe Rogan’s Comments on Race and Covid-19 Misinformation

Following in the footsteps of music legends Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, R&B legend India.Arie has announced her plans to remove her music from Spotify.

On Monday night, the singer took to Instagram to announce her decision, “I have decided to pull my music and podcast off Spotify,” she said.

Arie credited Young for bringing attention to Spotify and demanding that his music be taken off the service due to his dissatisfaction with the way Spotify has dealt with Joe Rogan’s podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, frequent promotion of false COVID-19 information, and racially charged rhetoric.

“Neil Young opened a door that I MUST walk through,” she wrote. “I believe in freedom of speech. However, I find Joe Rogan problematic for reasons OTHER than his COVID interviews,” Arie noted, saying that for her, “ITS ALSO HIS language around race. What I am talking about is RESPECT — who gets it and who doesn’t.”

Arie did not specify which of Rogan‘s race-related comments she found problematic. Still, he was recently criticized for saying it is “weird“ to refer to people as black unless they are “100% African, from the darkest place, where they’re not wearing any clothes all day.”

Additionally, the singer took issue with how much the company pays musicians compared to controversial podcasters.

“Paying musicians a Fraction of a penny? and HIM $100M?” she said of the reported figure Rogan got from Spotify for his podcast. “This shows the type of company they are and the company they keep. I’m tired.” In a comment on the post, she added, “I wonder who else is tired.”

As of Tuesday (February 1), India Arie‘s music is still available on Spotify.

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