Canadian-American singer Neil Young has announced that he is pulling his music from Amazon, calling on fans to stop supporting the multinational giant and other major corporations.
The 79-year-old singer and songwriter made the announcement on Wednesday, October 8, through a statement posted on his Neil Young Archives website.
“FORGET AMAZON AND WHOLE FOODS. FORGET FACEBOOK. BUY LOCAL. BUY DIRECT. BEZOS SUPPORTS THIS GOVERNMENT. IT DOES NOT SUPPORT YOU OR ME,” the website read.
Highlights
- Neil Young is pulling his music from Amazon, urging fans to stop supporting big corporations and buy local instead.
- He criticized Amazon and Whole Foods, linking Jeff Bezos to government support that he says doesn’t back ordinary people.
- Young condemned the political failures causing the U.S. government shutdown, urging people to reject big corporations to reclaim America.
Neil Young says he’s pulling his music from Amazon, and called on fans to stop supporting corporations
Image credits: Jim Dyson/Redferns
“FORGET AMAZON. Soon my music will not be there. It is easy to buy local. Support your community. Go to the local store,” he urged people.
“Don’t go back to the big corporations who have sold out America. We all have to give up something to save America from the Corporate Control Age it is entering.”
Republicans and Democrats have failed to pass a bill to fund government services, causing the U.S. federal government to be on a shutdown.
Young criticized this, saying, “They need you to buy from them. Don’t. They shut down our government. Your income. Your safety. Your family’s health security. Take America Back.”
“Together, stop buying from the big corporations, support local business. Do the right thing. Show who you are,” he continued.
Image credits: Nicolò Campo/Getty Images
It is not yet clear whether Young’s decision includes removing both digital and physical versions of his music from Amazon, or if the move applies only to Amazon Music streaming.
Young’s stance comes two months after he ended all promotional activity on Facebook and Instagram over Meta’s “use of chatbots with children,” following an investigative report by Reuters on the company’s practices.
Earlier this year, he also returned his music to Spotify after previously removing it in protest of alleged COVID-19 misinformation on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast in 2022.
Young originally pulled his catalog, stating that the platform could “have Rogan or Young. Not both.”
Young called on people to support local businesses and ‘buy local’
Image credits: Gary Miller/Getty Images
Young has a long history of using his music platform to take political stands. In 2006, he criticized the George W. Bush administration’s policy of war and its human costs to soldiers with his song ‘Living with War.’
More assertively, he also released the song, ‘Let's Impeach the President [Bush],’ after claiming Bush had lied to lead the country into war.
Young has also spoken out against the Keystone XL oil pipeline, likening the environmental damage in Alberta’s oil sands to Hiroshima after the atomic bomb.
He has supported the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, an indigenous group in Alberta, to draw attention to this issue by performing benefit concerts.