Neil Young Demands His Music Be Removed From Spotify, But His Label Gets the Last Word
In a now-deleted letter posted on his website,[1] legendary Rock and Roll Hall of Famer,[2] Neil Young, demanded Spotify remove his music so long as Spotify continued to host Joe Rogan’s podcast.[3] Neil Young accused Joe Rogan and Spotify of spreading “public misinformation and lies about COVID.”[4] And as demanded, Young’s music has been removed from Spotify, “losing 60% of [his] world wide streaming income.”[5]
How did he do it? Neil Young was acutely aware that he alone did not possess the power to successfully pull his music from Spotify.[6] Because, like many artists, Young does not have control of his own music.[7] Rather, a record label usually has control of an artist’s recordings, commonly referred to as “masters.”[8] Because Neil Young is signed to Warner Records,[9] Warner Records label,[10] Warner Records holds the distribution and licensing rights of Neil Young’s masters,[11] and thus only Warner Music Group (the owner of the record label)[12] had the right to require Spotify take down Neil Young’s recordings. In other words, Warner Music Group licensed Neil Young’s masters to Spotify, making it the entity in a contractual relationship—not Young—with Spotify.[13] However, it is seemingly in Warner Records’ interest to support Young’s wishes, considering his legendary status and enduring popularity.
Copyright law gives the owner of the masters (here, Warner Music Group) the right to remove those masters from a streaming service like Spotify because of Spotify’s status as an “interactive streaming service.”[14] Spotify is deemed an interactive service because an individual user controls what he/she listens too, whereas the radio is a non-interactive service because an individual listener has no control over what he/she listens to.[15] The distinction matters because neither Neil Young nor his label could demand his songs not be played on the radio, or even a digital radio service like Pandora,[16] since non-interactive services are statutorily licensed to use any published sound recording, as long as the non-interactive service pays the royalties set by the Copyright Royalty Board.[17] Accordingly, Neil Young—through his label—was able to remove his music from Spotify.
The Neil Young music that Spotify removed (and most published music) contained two separate rights: the right to the sound recording (the original, final, product) and the right to the composition (the music and lyrics of the song).[18] Warner Music Group owns the masters, the sound recording, for example, what one hears when one listens to Neil Young’s Heart of Gold on Apple Music.[19] Hipgnosis, Neil Young’s music publisher, owns the musical composition,[20]specifically, the music and lyrics of over 50% of Neil Young’s music catalogue.[21] Accordingly, Hipgnosis will also lose out on royalties generated from Spotify streams since Neil Young’s music has been removed from the platform.
Whether other artists will follow Young’s righteous crusade remains to be seen, but if an artist does so desire to take such a stand, he/she will first have to go through their labels for permission.
Footnotes
