Well, they sort of did choose though. I imagine Joe Rogan gets more listener hours than Neil Young does. It is also showing your values for the future if you remove Joe Rogan, whereas Neil Young is basically blackmailing them, in a pretty hysterical way.

I think on both issues Spotify wins. Financially they probably do, and they get to show they don't bow to hysterical artists. That's a good thing in the long run.

Spotify committed to a deal they would have estimated around $1 per year per premium member on exclusive rights to JRE. Neil Young may want to influence their choices in how they mediate social/political discourse that doesn't change the discussion musicians should be having about whether they are the equivalent of films on Netflix. Sidelined for original/exclusive content that inherently has to have a social/political mediation run by Spotify.