Musician and songwriter Neil Young recently asked Spotify to remove his music catalog because conservative shock jock Joe Rogan hurt his feelings with “vaccine misinformation”. You might ask yourself, why does an aging ex-hippy who spent his whole life fighting “the man” suddenly care about what Joe Rogan says about “the man”?
A meme circulating the internet today might explain this a little…it also might just be connecting dots that are coincidental, but that’s for you to decide.
The meme connects the hiring of former Pfizer CEO Jeffrey B. Kindler as the CEO of Blackstone, a leading global investment business investing capital on behalf of pension funds, large institutions and individuals to Neil Young’s selling of his music catalog to Hipgnosis for $1 billion. It then references a deal between Blackstone, led by a former Pfizer CEO and Hipgnosis to jointly manage music catalogs by artists such as Young to get the most value for their clients in the form of paid royalties. Then, it links Young’s demand to be removed from Spotify over “vaccine misinformation”.
The events happened in the same order they are portrayed in the meme. Here’s a quick breakdown.
Connecting the dots
- Blackstone Announces Appointment of Jeffrey B. Kindler, Former Chairman and CEO of Pfizer, as Senior Advisor – Read the press release
- Neil Young Sells Catalog Rights to Merck Mercuriadis’ Hipgnosis – Read the story in Rolling Stone
- Blackstone and Hipgnosis Song Management launch $1 billion partnership to invest in songs, recorded music, music IP and royalties – Read press release
- Neil Young Demands Spotify Remove His Music Over Joe Rogan’s Vaccine Comments – Read the story in the Wall Street Journal
So what benefit would it be to Neil Young, Blackstone or Hipgnosis to hold Young’s catalog hostage over vaccine misinformation?
First Blackstone is now run by a former Pfizer CEO, who undoubtedly still holds financial interest in his former company and probably has a great deal of personal equity and investments in the healthcare industry, in particular companies working on vaccines and COVID-19 treatments. To dismiss COVID-19 with “misinformation” would result in financial losses for Kindler.
Blackstone’s huge investment into COVID-19 related companies and mRNA research
Don’t believe it? Don’t take our word for it, Barron’s Daily has previously reported on Blackstone’s huge investments into mRNA research
Related: Blackstone Has Quietly Invested in Life Sciences for Years. Now Its Bet Could Pay Off.
“Last year alone, the publicly traded private-equity giant (ticker: BX) invested some $16 billion in life sciences, its biggest investment theme for the year. The firm has poured money into a broad range of drug companies and device makers, biopharma start-ups, and cutting-edge research, through equity investments and loans. And it has emerged as a leading landlord of laboratory space,” Barron’s reported. “There’s no better illustration of the strategy than Blackstone’s nearly $2 billion investment in Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (ALNY) around the time of the Covid outbreak last year. The Cambridge, Mass., company develops RNA-based drugs much like Moderna (MRNA) and Pfizer (PFE) and BioNTech (BNTX) in their innovative Covid-19 vaccines. However, Alnylam uses it to treat other diseases.”
Neil Young’s billion dollar deal with Hipgnosis
Now, let’s keep in mind, Neil Young, for his entire life has been a “rage against the machine” type hippie rebel from the 60s era of free love and fighting “the man”.
But one year ago, the man who used to mock artists for “selling out”, sold out. He sold 50% of his catalog to Hipgnosis for a whopping $1 billion.
“Young has never licensed any of his songs for use in an advertisement. In the video for his 1988 comeback hit “This Note’s for You,” he viciously mocked artists like Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston and Eric Clapton that engaged in the practice,” Rolling Stone reported last January after the deal was announced.
Related: Neil Young Sells Catalog Rights to Merck Mercuriadis’ Hipgnosis
Blackstone partners with Hipgnosis, but why?
Hipgnosis Song Management, founded by Merck Mercuriadis and formerly known as The Family Ltd, is one of the industry’s leading advisory firms focused on music assets and is the investment advisor to Hipgnosis Songs Fund Ltd (LSE: SONG), the largest UK-listed investor in music catalogs and royalties with gross assets of $2.2 billion. That means nearly half of their entire collection of assets is the Neil Young music catalog?
“This partnership underscores the long term, sustainable value we see in creative content across the wider entertainment industry, building on Merck’s vision and dynamism,” Blackstone said of the new partnership. “The music industry has been at the forefront of the fast-growing streaming economy and is unlocking new ways of consuming content. We look forward to working with Merck and his team to continue their exciting journey and safeguard the legacy of the songwriters that entrust us with their content.”
Did you happen to catch that?
“The music industry has been at the forefront of the fast-growing streaming economy and is unlocking new ways of consuming content.“
Not sure what that means yet? Blackstone elaborates.
“Blackstone will take an ownership stake in HSM and will support the expansion of its infrastructure and business functions, including the development of new song management expertise, data science capabilities and technology solutions. This should allow HSM to further enhance the value of the rights it purchases, working in close collaboration with songwriters, artists and producers,” the company said.
This begs us to ask the question nobody has yet asked. What does an investment firm run by a former Pfizer CEO, a song management company, and a washed-out hippie like Neil Young have to benefit from removing his songs from Spotify and losing his royalties?
First, Neil Young’s channel on Spotify gets about 6 million monthly listeners. Young’s music has been removed from Spotify.
In the marketing industry, there’s a saying, “No news is bad news”.
Neil Young pulling his music from Spotify has actually created a demand for his music that didn’t exist prior to his request to remove the songs from the service. So whether Neil Young is hashing out a brilliant plan to become relevant in a time when his popularity is waning or he’s a complete idiot who is engaged in a last-ditch effort to screw “the man” and relive his rebellious 60s self is currently a mystery.
What is known is that as Neil Young’s music is delisted from Spotify, both Blackstone and Hipgnosis are losing out on royalties of 7 million monthly listeners of a catalog the UK firm just paid a billion dollars for.
More intriguing is that Hipgnosis is ok with this.
Related: Neil Young Praises Label & Publisher for ‘Standing With’ Him in Spotify COVID Misinformation Fight
“I want to thank my partners for standing with me,” Young wrote in one of the statements, which were posted to his Neil Young Archives website after Spotify announced the iconic’s rocker was being removed. This was not an easy business decision, Young noted, explaining that Spotify represents 60% of his streaming revenue, meaning Warner Records/Reprise and Hipgnosis — which purchased 50% of Young’s song catalog in January 2021 — would take a significant financial hit with the decision. Young called this “losing 60% of my world wide streaming income in the name of Truth.”
So Hipgnosis is perfectly fine with a deal that launched January 1st going under just a month later after spending $1 billion on it? Worse, renkowned financial investment firm Blackstone, who also invested $1 billion into that company is ok with it?
What we probably have here is nothing more than a marketing ploy by a former 60s hippie who sold out and cashed in on his life’s work who realized that 6 million monthly listeners after the first month of the deal was not enough for everyone to eat at the table. So Young, together with the former Pfizer CEO who has invested heavily into a company that owns half of his catalog suddenly is making a big deal about “vaccine misinformation” in order to artificially inflate his relevance and notability in a time that has long passed him by.
Neil Young has now opened the door for his music to be heard by a new generation for liberal counter-culture protesters like himself. He has become the new hero of the left and now has name recognition among young liberals and progressives. He has the support of Hollywood and he has set off a chain reaction of other aging social rebels like himself.
Related: All the Artists Who Have Left Spotify So Far
The left, which created cancel culture has found a new way to monetize cancel culture. They simply cancel themselves in the name of a good cause, which of course is tied to financial self-enrichment in the long gone, to create brand awareness and to reach new audiences never before available to them…in an effort to battle COVID-19 “misinformation”.
Led by a guy who is in bed with people who are heavily invested in the COVID-19 medical industry. It could all just be a conspiracy theory, but these days, you never know.