King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard have pulled their music from Spotify.
- READ MORE: King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard: “If something is shit and no one likes it, you just put out another one the next month”
The Australian rock band announced plans to remove all of their 27 studio albums, live albums and compilations from the platform yesterday (July 25), when sharing news of a new collection of demos.
In an Instagram post, they wrote that the songs are “out everywhere except Spotify (fuck Spotify). You can bootleg it if you wanna.”
Then, explaining the decision, the band wrote on their stories: “Hello friends. A PSA to those unaware: Spotify CEO Daniel Ek invests millions in AI military drone technology. We just removed our music from the platform. Can we put pressure on these Dr. Evil tech bros to do better? Join us on another platform.”
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.
🦎King Gizzard oficialmente informa que eliminó prácticamente todo su catálogo de Spotify en boicot a la plataforma y su CEO Daniel Ek, quien invirtió millones en Helsing, una empresa de defensa alemana especializada en drones de combate impulsados por IA pic.twitter.com/JgIAz0srdg
— merytheroadie (@mariaroad_) July 25, 2025
The band join Xiu Xiu, who also announced that they are in the process of removing their music from the platform over Ek’s “investment in AI war drones”, and Deerhoof, who pulled their catalogue from the streamer 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.
