Prince Harry of England and his wife Meghan Markle expressed their concern to Spotify about misinformation about covid-19 on that platform, but they remain willing to continue working with that company, a spokesman for their foundation, Archewell, explained on Sunday.
The statement by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex comes after Neil Young and Joni Mitchell announced that they will withdraw their music from Spotify in protest at the broadcast of a popular podcast accused of spreading falsehoods about covid-19 and vaccines against the disease.
According to the aforementioned spokesperson, Harry and Meghan spoke with Spotify in April and addressed “the real consequences” of misinformation about covid-19.
“We have continued to express our concerns to Spotify to ensure changes are made to their platform to help deal with this public health crisis,” the Dukes said through their spokesperson.
In addition, they expressed their desire that Spotify “live up” to the current moment, with criticism from various artists, and stated that they remain “committed” to continue working with the platform.
Harry and Meghan signed in 2020 an exclusive agreement with Spotify worth 24 million dollars to premiere a series of radio programs throughout 2021, although for now they have only published a 34-minute podcast and that was a Christmas special, he explained. the company recently.
That unique program featured guests such as chef José Andrés, comedian James Corden, musician Elton John and tennis player Naomi Osaka, who discussed how to deal with the pandemic and shared several personal anecdotes.
The controversy surrounding Spotify focuses on the program “The Joe Rogan Experience”, considered the most popular podcast in the United States.
The show, offered exclusively on this platform after Spotify signed Rogan for $100 million in 2020, has been repeatedly criticized for promoting coronavirus conspiracy theories and encouraging non-vaccination.
A letter signed by 270 American doctors and scientists warned Spotify a few weeks ago that it was allowing the dissemination of messages that damage public confidence in scientific research and health recommendations.
Neil Young – Mitchell’s friend – said that after reading that letter he could not continue to support the streaming platform and decided to remove his songs from that service.
