Joni Mitchell has quietly followed Neil Young and put her music back on Spotify.
Unlike Young, there was no official statement from Mitchell or her camp announcing or explaining the decision. Rather, it was fans on social media who noticed her catalog was back and spread with the news with all-caps fervor: “JONI MITCHELL MUSIC BACK ON SPOTIFY THIS IS NOT A DRILL,” tweeted one user.
A rep for Mitchell did not immediately return Rolling Stone’s request for comment.
Mitchell pulled her music from the streaming giant just over two years ago in protest of Spotify’s partnership with Joe Rogan and its exclusive deal to host the very popular Joe Rogan Experience podcast. Rogan and his show had come under fire from medical experts, who accused it of spreading misinformation about the Covid-19 vaccine.
Young was first to take down his catalog in Jan. 2022, and Mitchell followed suit a few weeks later, sharing a statement titled, “I Stand With Neil Young!” and writing: “Irresponsible people are spreading lies that are costing people their lives. I stand in solidarity with Neil Young and the global scientific and medical communities on this issue.”
The decision of both artists to reverse course comes after Rogan signed a new $250 million deal with Spotify that makes The Joe Rogan Experience available on other platforms, like Apple, Amazon, and Tidal. As such, Young reluctantly wrote, “Because I cannot leave all those services like I did Spotify, because my music would have no streaming outlet to music lovers at all, I have returned.”
(Young then took the opportunity to take a dig at Spotify that was completely unrelated to Rogan, but rather his deep advocacy for high-quality audio: “[I have] sincere hopes that Spotify sound quality will improve and people will be able to hear and feel all the music as we made it,” he wrote. “Hopefully Spotify will return to Hi Res as the answer and serve all the music to everyone.”)
For Mitchell, the decision to return to the major streaming service comes in the midst of a very busy and exciting moment. After suffering a brain aneurysm in 2015, Mitchell has made a steady return to the public eye, as well as the stage: She played her first show in over 20 years in 2022, with her set at the Newport Folk festival turned into a Grammy-winning live album. Mitchell also performed at the Grammys this year (her first time ever on the show) and recently helped honor Elton John and Bernie Taupin as they received the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. Future concerts are also on the books for this October in Los Angeles.
