advertisement
Music News

Neil Young Is Done With X & Elon Musk: ‘We Are Taking Action Against His Company’

The rocker also urged Palestinian & Jewish people to set aside their differences and stand together amid Israel-Hamas war.

Neil Young participates in a press conference during Farm Aid at Ruoff Home Mortgage Music Center on September 23, 2023 in Noblesville, Indiana.

Neil Young participates in a press conference during Farm Aid at Ruoff Home Mortgage Music Center on September 23, 2023 in Noblesville, Indiana.

Gary Miller/Getty Images

Neil Young is taking a stand against Elon Musk. On Monday (Nov. 20), the rock icon revealed that he will no longer be supporting X, formerly known as Twitter, and urged Palestinian and Jewish people to band together in light of the war between Israel and Hamas.

“We are stopping all use of X that we can control,” Young wrote in a statement posted to his website. “For reasons that should be obvious to the richest man on Earth, we are taking action against his company.” The post featured an image of Musk with the text “Tesla should fly flags of love, not hate” written over the billionaire’s face.


advertisement

The statement continued, “For our many Palestinian friends and our many Jewish friends, we do need to start over in the present and release our terrible connections to the past. As bad as they are, they need to be forgotten so we can be free to move on in life together, all humanity, focused on saving our planet for future generations of all people.”

Young’s statement comes after the tech mogul approved of a Friday tweet that accused Jewish people facing antisemitism due to the Israel-Hamas war of furthering the “exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them” and supporting “hordes of minorities” to become immigrants. Musk replied, “You have said the actual truth.”

“It is unacceptable to repeat the hideous lie behind the most fatal act of antisemitism in American history at any time, let alone one month after the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust,” Andrew Bates, a White House spokesman, said in response to Musk’s co-signing of the tweet.

On Sunday, Musk addressed his stance and explained “nothing could be further from the truth” with regards to him being antisemitic. “I wish only the best for humanity and a prosperous and exciting future for all.”

advertisement

Last month, Young announced that he’ll release a new album, titled Before and After, on Dec. 8. The album will feature fresh takes on Young’s favorite lesser-known tracks from his songwriting vault, per a press release. “The feeling is captured, not in pieces, but as a whole piece — designed to be listened to that way. This music presentation defies shuffling, digital organization, separation. Only for listening. That says it all,” Young wrote in a statement.

This article was originally published by Billboard U.S.

advertisement
Major Music Streaming Companies Push Back Against Canadian Content Payments: Inside Canada's 'Streaming Tax' Battle
Photo by Lee Campbell on Unsplash
Streaming

Inside Canada's 'Streaming Tax' Battle

Spotify, Apple, Amazon and others are challenging the CRTC's mandated fee payments to Canadian content funds like FACTOR and the Indigenous Music Office, both in courts and in the court of public opinion. Here's what's at stake.

Some of the biggest streaming services in music are banding together to fight against a major piece of Canadian arts legislation – in court and in the court of public opinion.

Spotify, Apple, Amazon and others are taking action against the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC)’s 2024 decision that major foreign-owned streamers with Canadian revenues over $25 million will have to pay 5% of those revenues into Canadian content funds – what the streamers have termed a “Streaming Tax.”

keep readingShow less
advertisement