Godspeed You! Black Emperor are the latest band to pull their music from Spotify, although in this case the boycott seems to also apply to other streaming services, so that fans will have to rely on Bandcamp to access their output.
Meanwhile Neil Young, a previous high profile boycotter of Spotify, has now turned his boycotting attention to Facebook, following a Reuters report on a policy document at the social media company that said it was permitted for AI chatbots to “engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual”.
A number of bands have recently pulled their recordings from Spotify in protest over CEO Daniel Ek’s investments in German AI defence tech company Helsing.
Those investments, via Ek’s venture capital business Prima Materia, are not new but have been ramped up recently, prompting the likes of Deerhoof, Xiu Xiu and King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard to announce they are now formally boycotting the music service.
When it emerged that Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s recordings had also been removed from Spotify, there was speculation they had joined the same boycott. But then it was noticed that their music is no longer on Deezer, Tidal or Amazon Music either.
The band’s first two albums were still available on Apple Music, but label Kranky Records then confirmed to Pitchfork they were in the process of being removed too. A rep for the label said, “Kranky has always granted artists control over how their music is presented and disseminated”.
All of which suggests that the band have issues with the streaming business model in general, rather than the payment policies or wider conduct of any one platform. No official statement has as yet been made, with Godspeed You! Black Emperor not really having an official presence on social media.
Neil Young boycotted Spotify for two years, starting in 2022, in protest over the then Spotify exclusive Joe Rogan podcast, which he said was platforming misinformation about the COVID pandemic.
His decision to boycott Facebook follows the Reuters report on a chatbot policy document at the social media platform’s parent company Meta, which set out what kinds of things AI chatbots being developed by the business would be permitted to do.
According to the news agency, that document said it was permitted for the company’s AI chatbots to “engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual”, and to also “generate false medical information and help users argue that black people are dumber than white people”.
Meta has confirmed that the document seen by Reuters is authentic but said it has now “removed portions which stated it is permissible for chatbots to flirt and engage in romantic roleplay with children”. A spokesperson added, “such conversations with children never should have been allowed”.
Young had a Facebook page managed by Warner Music’s Reprise Records. A statement was posted on that page late last week that reads, “At Neil Young’s request, we are no longer using Facebook for any Neil Young related activities. Meta’s use of chatbots with children is unconscionable. Mr Young does not want a further connection with Facebook”.
