‘Soon My Music Will Not Be There’

“Bezos supports this government,” rocker says in post where he writes he’s removing his music from the online marketplace behemoth. “Don’t go back to the big corporations who have sold out America”

Neil Young has announced that he plans to remove his music from Amazon, the latest move in the rocker’s ongoing battle against Big Tech.

“The time is here. Forget Amazon,” Young wrote on his Archives’ Times-Contrarian this week. “Soon my music will not be there.”

Young didn’t specify whether he would simply remove his music from Amazon’s streaming service — as he did in the past with Spotify over Covid disinformation — or if he would strip all Young-related items, including his physical albums, from the online marketplace.

As the singer explained in his note that called for fans to “forget” Amazon and the companies under its umbrella, including Whole Foods Market, “It is easy to buy local. Support your community. Go to the local store. Don’t go back to the big corporations that have sold out America. We all have to give up something to save America from the Corporate Control Age it is entering. They need you to buy from them. Don’t.”

Young also reasoned that “[Jeff] Bezos supports this government,” which is in the midst of a shutdown that has impacted many Americans. “They shut down our government, your income, your safety, your family’s health security,” Young wrote. “Take America Back together, stop buying from big corporations, support local business. Do the right thing. Show who you care.”

Over the past half-decade, Young has frequently used the removal of his music (in the case of Spotify) or participation (in the case of Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram) to protest Big Tech. The rocker previously lamented the outbreak of corporations like Amazon on his 2015 song “Big Box.”