Bruce Springsteen sold his music catalog to Sony recently for a groundbreaking price. His E Street Band bandmember Steven Van Zandt recently commented on the sale on Twitter and talked about the recent Spotify issue.
Spotify recently removed Neil Young’s songs from the app as he protested against the airing of Joe Rogan’s podcast. Many argue that Joe Rogan gave false information about the pandemic in his podcast and misinformed his listeners. According to Neil Young, he should have been banned for acting against scientific facts and causing people to believe him. However, instead, Spotify removed Neil Young’s songs from the app, and the musician is now faced with an immense loss of money.
This has been a topic of discussion in the music world recently. His CSNY bandmate David Crosby supported his protest and decision to remove his songs from the app even though it would cost him a lot of his income. Crosby is also known to have suffered from the streaming platforms’ systems. According to him, they don’t pay the artist enough. While this is being discussed widely among musicians, a question was directed to Stevie Van Zandt regarding Springsteen’s publishing rights.
Springsteen recently sold his entire catalog for around $500 million, which marked the biggest deal for an individual artist. However, this creates confusion in regards to the artist’s decisions on making their work accessible on streaming platforms. Even though Neil Young had also sold his catalog, he had the freedom to withdraw his music, and it was a matter of curiosity if Springsteen also had the rights to that.
Steven Van Zandt stated that he doesn’t have clear information about this topic because he hasn’t talked to Springsteen in a while. However, in his opinion, the artists may have some rights when they are still alive. He also proposed that the record companies might want to buy all the rights because they pay a significant amount to claim ownership.
Here is the question:
“Question, Stevie Van Zandt, with Dylan & Springsteen selling their catalogs, do they have any control over their music being played on Spotify?”
Steven Van Zandt answered:
“Haven’t spoken to them about it, so I’m not even sure those deals went down. If they did, there may be a clause in there that gives them some control while they’re still alive maybe. But when somebody pays hundreds of millions, they probably want their money back any way possible!”
You can check out the tweets below.
Haven’t spoken to them about it so I’m not even sure those deals went down. If they did, there may be a clause in there that gives them some control while they’re still alive maybe. But when somebody pays hundreds of millions, they probably want their money back any way possible! https://t.co/UtugpIMvAu
— Stevie Van Zandt (@StevieVanZandt) January 31, 2022
