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Some Neil Young Music Quietly Remained on Spotify: Here’s Why

Even though Neil Young made sure to let everyone know he was leaving Spotify, it seems that some of his music is still sticking around on the streaming service.

Of course, the majority of his music catalog isn’t available to listen to on Spotify. In fact, it seems that he’s kept his promise for the most part. If any Neil Young music is still on Spotify, it’s by no volition of his own. The content that’s still available is from soundtracks, collaborations, or other events. To be clear, the Neil Young songs available on Spotify were not released by the singer himself. For example, his song “Heart of Gold” is still on the streaming site due to it being a part of the Eat, Pray, Love soundtrack. In that case, and others, the music isn’t on the site from him directly.

It’s unclear if these remaining tracks will stay on the streaming site or not. When asked about them, representatives for Spotify, Warner Bros. Records, and Neil Young himself had “no comment.”

The famed singer originally protested against Spotify for airing episodes from Joe Rogan’s podcast. He said that the streaming giant could either remove Joe Rogan‘s content from their catalog, or he would remove his own music and effectively leave the platform. According to Neil Young, Spotify “can have Rogan or Young. Not both.” In a statement, Spotify said that it regretted Young’s decision “but hope to welcome him back soon.”

Neil Young Streaming Numbers Go Up After Leaving Spotify

Of course, Spotify wasn’t about to get rid of one of their biggest moneymakers. Fox Business reports that in order to become their sole distributor, Spotify paid $100 million for Joe Rogan and his podcast. Needless to say, he’s a star on the site.

However, Neil Young‘s numbers were impressive on the streaming service. In fact, before he had his catalog pulled from Spotify, Young was amassing more than six million monthly listeners. Interestingly enough, his stats have only gone up since leaving Spotify.

In the two weeks that followed Neil Young’s departure from Spotify, his consumption shot up. In streaming alone, there was a 38% increase in listeners. Not to mention album sales. According to Mark Mercuriadis, who owns the rights to half of Young’s catalog, “we’re hundreds of percentages up in terms of album sales and that.” In one week, his album sales went up by 80%.

Part of this increase is likely due to Apple Music, which has been advertising Young’s catalog. During that first week that he had left Spotify, he reached 5.6 million streaming listeners. In addition to that, he sold 6,825 albums and 7,728 digital tracks. The singer has enlisted other artists to leave Spotify, and their stats have gone up as well.