Neil Young Promotes Amazon Music Free Ads Amid Spotify-Rogan Dispute

Neil Young wants his fans to keep rockin’ in the free world – but on Amazon Musicnot Spotify.

On Friday, Young announced a special deal with Amazon Music that gives new subscribers four free months with the streamer. The 76-year-old music icon’s move comes after two days he asked Spotify to pull his songs from its service to protest Spotify’s inability to prevent COVID misinformation in the “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast.

On Friday, the Neil Young Archives website directed fans to Amazon Music to take advantage of the service’s premium Unlimited tier offer (at this link for US visitors). Normally, Amazon Music Unlimited (usually $7.99/month) is free for 30 days for new customers.

“Amazon has been a leader in bringing Hi-Res audio to the masses and it’s a great place to enjoy my entire catalog at the highest quality available,” Neil Young Archives posted on Twitter. on Friday. The tweet added, “Thanks also to Apple Music (I LOVE APPLE) and Qobuz for sticking with my high-res music.”

Young received no compensation from Amazon for promoting the special deal.

Amazon Music Unlimited provides access to 75 million songs, ad-free. The e-commerce giant is first of three major music services to introduce support for HD music, more than two years ago. That went before Apple Music’s HD was released last June. Spotify has indefinitely delayed the rollout of HiFi, its own high-quality audio offering, Originally slated to launch in select markets in November.

Early Friday, Young blew up Spotify for his decision to cast Rogan too hold his music catalog on its platformand also highly recommend Spotify for the “lousy” sound quality.

Young writes in a blog post: “Private companies have the right to choose what they profit from, just as I can choose not to have my music support a disseminating platform. harmful. “I am delighted and proud to stand in solidarity with frontline healthcare workers who are risking their lives every day to help others.”

He continued, “If you support Spotify, you are destroying an art form. Business over art. Spotify plays artists’ music at 5% quality and charges you what you like it for real music. ”