After removing her music from Spotify in 2022 in solidarity with her old friend and fellow Canadian icon Neil Young, Joni Mitchell‘s classic albums are back on the streaming service.
As previously reported, Young pulled his music from Spotify in January 2022, accusing the service of “spreading fake information” about the COVID-19 vaccine by hosting The Joe Rogan Experience podcast. In a recent post on his Archives website, he announced its return, writing, “My decision comes as music services Apple and Amazon have started serving the same disinformation podcast features I had opposed at SPOTIFY.”
Young added that he can’t leave Apple and Amazon “because my music would have very little streaming outlet to music lovers at all.” He added, “I hope all you millions of Spotify users enjoy my songs! They will now all be there for you except for the full sound we created.”
He also expressed his hope Spotify would improve its sound quality so “people will be able to hear and feel all the music as we made it.”
Mitchell hasn’t commented on the return of her music, but as Billboard points out, it was never 100% absent from Spotify. Her classic albums, like Blue, Ladies of the Canyon and Court and Spark, disappeared, but her ’80s and early ’90s releases, like Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm, Night Ride Home and Wild Things Run Fast, were still available.
Billboard reported in 2022 that following Mitchell’s announcement of the removal, songs from those albums saw a nearly 500% streaming increase.
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