Xiu Xiu have announced that they are in the process of removing their music from Spotify, over CEO Daniel Ek’s “investment in AI war drones”.
The indie trio took to Instagram last night (July 24) to tell fans: “We are currently working to take all of our music off of garbage hole violent armageddon portal Spotify,” alongside a caption citing the reason as: “Spotify uses music money to invest in war drones.”
It comes after the news that Prima Materia, the investment company co-founded by Ek, is leading a €600million (£446million) investment in Helsing, a Munich-based company creating drones and artificial intelligence for military operations, per the Financial Times.
Xiu Xiu went on to say: “It is taking longer than we had hoped due to procedurally complications but will be completed soon. Thanks for the support and patience.”
They then added: “For all the reasons you already know — PLEASE CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION WITH SPOTIFY.”
The band has reportedly received “full support” from their three main labels, Polyvinyl, Kill Rock Stars and Graveface, per Consequence.
It comes after Deerhoof also recently pulled their catalogue from the platform for the same reason, stating: “We don’t want our music killing people. We don’t want our success being tied to AI battle tech,” Deerhoof said in a statement.
In recent years, people have been divided about streaming platforms and their impact on the music industry. In 2024, for example, Ek sparked backlash for his comments relating to the cost of “creating content”, with countless users and musicians describing him as “out of touch”.
Ek later walked back on his comments, explaining in an apology that he had no intention of dismissing the struggles faced by musicians and using the “reductive” label of “content”, and instead “was most interested in exploring was how, in this environment of constant creation, we can identify and ensure that the bold, exciting, world-changing ideas and pieces of art don’t get lost in the noise.”
The negative response to this was heightened as, around the same time, it was confirmed that Spotify had made profits of over €1billion (£860m), following staff being laid off and subscription prices rising.
Earlier this year, Cradle Of Filth’s Dani Filth criticised the platform and said he “owes it” to other musicians not to have an account, while Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante described streaming as the place “where music goes to die” last November.
The streaming platform also received criticism after it officially demonetised all songs on the platform with less than 1,000 streams – making it harder for artists to generate royalties from their music and restricting new artists looking to crack the music industry.
