India Arie and Graham Nash pull music from Spotify in Joe Rogan row

Soul musician India Arie and British singer-songwriter Graham Nash have become the latest artists to ask Spotify to remove their music.

They follow Joni Mitchell and Neil Young, who are boycotting the streaming service over Covid misinformation discussed by podcast host Joe Rogan.

Arie said her decision was also partly due to Rogan's "language around race".

Rogan has apologised to the company and vowed to do better, but hasn't responded to the latest departures.

Spotify has announced it will add advisory warnings to podcasts discussing Covid-19, which will direct listeners to facts and information as well as "trusted sources".

Arie announced her intention to pull her music and podcast from Spotify in a statement on social media.

"Neil Young opened a door that I MUST walk through," she wrote. "I believe in freedom of speech. However, I find Joe Rogan problematic for reasons OTHER than his Covid interviews. For me it's also his language around race.

"What I am talking about is respect... [Spotify] paying musicians a fraction of a penny, and him $100m? This shows the type of company they are and the company that they keep."

Rogan, who signed an exclusive $100m (£82m) deal with Spotify in 2020, has previously been criticised for using language and debating issues in ways which some listeners find offensive.

Arie is one of the most acclaimed and influential soul musicians of her generation. Her debut album, 2001's Acoustic Soul, is considered a pillar of the "neo-soul" movement of the late 1990s and early noughties.

Nash, 80, said in a statement posted on Instagram: "Having heard the Covid disinformation spread by Joe Rogan on Spotify, I completely agree with and support my friend, Neil Young.

"There is a difference between being open to varying viewpoints on a matter and knowingly spreading false information which some 270 medical professionals have derided as not only false but dangerous."

Across a six-decade career, Nash has released music as a member of The Hollies, and Crosby, Stills & Nash, who became a quartet in the late 1960s with the addition of Young.

Nash is also a former partner of Mitchell. It is believed only his solo work will be removed.

Rock band Failure have also announced their departure from Spotify. The group said they had long felt the streaming giant paid artists poorly, and their dissatisfaction with the platform had been exacerbated by "Spotify's recent policy shift that allows Covid vaccine misinformation to thrive".

Comedian Stewart Lee said he had also asked Spotify to remove his material. The platform had hosted recordings of some of his stand-up routines.

"I am fully aware this will make no financial difference to Spotify whatsoever," he said. "But for too long internet platforms have been able to spread lies with impunity, free from the checks and balances that govern traditional publishers and broadcasters, and their efforts to correct this still do not go for enough.

"Perhaps artists big and small can band together to do something to change this where the money men won't."

Much of the controversy regards two recent episodes of Rogan's podcast, which featured the cardiologist Dr Peter McCullough and immunologist/virologist Dr Robert Malone.

Both expressed views that were contrary to mainstream information provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Other stars came out in support of Rogan after he pledged to "balance out these more controversial viewpoints with other people's perspectives".

In an Instagram video posted on Monday, Rogan said he would "do my best to make sure I've researched these topics... and have all the pertinent facts at hand" before discussing them on his podcast, which averages 11 million listeners per episode.

Dwayne Johnson, the world's highest-paid actor, commented on the video: "Great stuff here brother. Perfectly articulated. Look forward to coming on one day and breaking out the tequila with you."

Singer Jewel agreed: "You're doing a great job. Keep it up."

On Tuesday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the Biden administration was encouraged by Spotify's decision to add disclaimers, but added that tech and media outlets should collectively do more.

"Our hope is [that] all major tech platforms and all major news sources for that matter be responsible and be vigilant to ensure that the American people have access to accurate information on something as significant as Covid," she said.

On Monday, Tim Ingham from Music Business Worldwide suggested a star like Neil Young removing his music from Spotify in the modern streaming era could potentially be a "watershed case".

"In 2017, when Taylor Swift came with her tail between her legs back on to Spotify and very smartly - because she is incredibly smart - couched it as a celebration for her fans, you could not really operate as a high-profile commercial artist without being on Spotify," Ingham told BBC News

"Today, I think the picture is far more complicated, and I do think that Neil Young being the first to do it... he could be a trailblazer in terms of artists leaving Spotify and realising that they still can have a healthy economic situation as a creator."