Neil Young Will 'Soon' Remove Discography from Amazon Music, Encourages Listeners to 'Buy Local'
Along with withdrawing his catalogue from the major streaming service, Young is encouraging fans to "buy local," in protest of the corporation.
Neil Young is removing his discography from Amazon Music.
The Canadian singer-songwriter and activist has taken to his website, sharing that he plans to remove his discography from the streaming service and urged fans to stop supporting the entire company.
In the post, titled "Forget Amazon and Whole Foods," Young explained that he feels Amazon is among the "big corporations who have sold out America."
To join the protest, Young said he will "soon" remove his music from the corporation’s streaming service. As of today, Young’s decades-long discography with classics like Harvest is still available to stream on Amazon's Canadian website.
In his website message, he pinpointed Amazon's billionaire founder, Jeff Bezos, as a key supporter of the U.S. President Donald Trump administration. Young has been outspoken about the latter for years, releasing a dissing single “Big Crime” in September, which includes the lyric: “Got to get the fascists out.”
Instead of supporting major companies, Young said it's “easy to buy local” and support their community.
"We all have to give up something to save America from the Corporate Control Age it is entering," he wrote in the post. “Do the right thing. Show who you are.”
This isn’t the first time the Canadian rocker has spoken up or left a platform that didn't align with his beliefs.
Two months ago, Young quit Facebook, citing Meta’s ‘unconscionable’ use of chatbots with children, and his official artist page would not be used for “any Neil Young-related activities.”
Earlier this year, Young cancelled his Glastonbury set after learning the BBC was a partner of the U.K. music festival. “We will not be playing Glastonbury on this tour because it is a corporate turn-off, and not for me like it used to be,” he shared on his website. Two days later, he reversed his decision. Young later requested that his set not be recorded, but that was also overturned.
In 2022, the Canadian icon published an open letter announcing his departure from Spotify, asking the streaming service to remove his catalog, citing what he called “the spread of vaccine misinformation” on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast. He returned to the platform in 2024 as the podcast, once exclusive to Spotify, began streaming on other services.
