The number of artists boycotting Spotify is slowly increasing with King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard the latest to pull their music from the streaming service in protest over its CEO Daniel Ek investing in the arms sector via his venture capital business Prima Materia.
In a statement on Instagram, the band wrote, “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”.
Ek’s venture capital fund first invested in German AI defence tech company Helsing in 2021, a move which caused some criticism within the music community at the time. His involvement in the company has been back in the spotlight since it emerged last month that Prima Materia had led a €600 million funding round at Helsing, and Ek himself is now Chair of the defence business’s board.
Deerhoof were among the first bands to respond to that latest investment, announcing late last month that they had pulled their music from Spotify in protest. They said, “We don’t want our music killing people. We don’t want our success being tied to AI battle tech”.
Californian rock band Xiu Xiu also joined the boycott last week, stating on Instagram, “We are currently working to take all of our music off of garbage hole violent armageddon portal Spotify”, and adding, “please cancel your subscription with Spotify”.
Spotify has been on the receiving end of artist boycotts before of course, most notably in 2022 when Neil Young removed his music in protest over the Joe Rogan podcast, which was a Spotify exclusive at the time. Young objected to COVID misinformation that had been given airtime on Rogan’s show, while other artists joined the boycott over racist language that had been used on the podcast in the past.
However, even that headline grabbing boycott led by an artist as high profile as Young had little impact on Spotify’s subscriber numbers. It did prompt Spotify to ramp up its content moderation rules though. But it would probably take a pretty significant boycott to have any impact on Ek’s investment choices.
As an Irish Times article on the latest boycott notes, Ek’s investment in Helsing – which “makes military drones and AI software for the enhancement of weapons systems” – appears to be “a very smart investment: the company, which was founded in 2021, has more than doubled its market value over the last year, and is now worth an estimated €12 billion”.
How easy it is for artists to join the Spotify boycott depends partly on how they release their music and the deals they’ve signed with any labels.
A record deal may or may not give them the right to veto their music being on any one platform. If it doesn’t, it all depends on whether the label shares the artist’s concerns, or wants to keep the artist happy, or to avoid being pulled into any PR battle that portrays them as supporting the arms sector.
In terms of the commercial hit an artist would take by pulling their recordings from Spotify – assuming few fans would actually switch to another streaming service just to access said music – that depends on a number of factors, in particular how established the artist is and how well their music streams.
Jake Saunders from Deefhoof’s label Joyful Noise, which also released one King Gizzard album, notes that boycotting Spotify is easier for artists who tour extensively, and artists or labels that have a strong direct-to-fan business.
He told Pitchfork that “labels and artists that are still developing their live show” are “ essentially being held hostage by Spotify”, which is so important for artists still looking to grow a fanbase.
“No disrespect to King Gizz”, he added, “but they are a successful touring band with the ability to take a stand. Their Spotify royalties are likely a drop in the bucket compared to what they can make on the road”.
Joyful Noise, he went on, “has a healthy webstore” and a subscription model that “allows us to release not-so-Spotify-friendly bands. Yet, for developing artists and labels, Spotify is held as a priority across several sectors of the industry”.
“Our only hope”, he concluded, “is that Spotify becomes so uncool that people start to discover music elsewhere, hopefully on a platform that isn’t run by someone giving millions to the military industrial complex”.
