“I hope they don’t underestimate themselves or undervalue their art.” “It’s my opinion that music should not be free, and my prediction is that individual artists and their labels will someday decide what an album’s price point is,” Swift wrote in an op/ed a couple of months before her Spotify exodus. Swift’s protest wasn’t political, it was economic: she pulled her catalog in protest at Spotify’s free tier which, she suggested, was devaluing music’s worth in the eyes of fans. The last time we saw an artist of Young’s profile publicly wrench their catalog from Spotify – with a similar level of mainstream media furore – it was Taylor Swift, back in November 2014. It could, crack by crack, cause an earthquake at the center of Spotify’s business. If they do – whatever their motivations – it could have repercussions far beyond polemical disputes over Covid-19, and whether or not Spotify cares more about podcasting or music.

In an open letter published this week, Young called on his fellow stars to “move off the Spotify platform”.

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