Spotify's AI Military Investment Sparks Artist Exodus and Ethical Debate

Spotify used to seem like a necessary evil for musicians. Now it just seems evil | David Bridie

I am removing my music from Spotify because I don't want my songs - some written with survivors of conflict - to enrich people who fund weapons Being an independent musician comes with plenty of challenges, but it also comes with privileges, and one of them is that you're free to speak your mind. You can live by your beliefs. When necessary, you can kick against the pricks. Today, I am joining a growing number of musicians kicking against one prick in particular. I have decided to remove my music from Spotify. Don't get me wrong. I appreciate the positive side of streaming. It's convenient, like having your own radio station. If you're in a car and you want to hear Beasley Street by John Cooper Clarke - which I often do - it's there for you. This ease of access is a great thing for the listener. And it can be a good thing for the artist too, if, after hearing a song on a streaming platform, the listener then buys the album or pays to see the artist in concert. But it's not so great if streaming is the listener's only engagement. Because that accessibility means fewer people now purchase music via digital download, vinyl or CD - which would be fine, if streaming royalty rates weren't atrocious. Spotify pays artists between $0.003 and $0.005 per stream. For independent artists - especially those from the Pacific and First Nations communities, and artists without the machinery of major labels - this is insulting and completely unsustainable. A royalty model that is not sustainable for artists leads to a situation where only the independently wealthy can create music - an outcome that is neither culturally healthy nor desirable. Of course, that's assuming the independently wealthy musicians are able to fight off the AI-generated music currently crowding onto the streaming platforms. Don't think this situation has come about because times are hard for everybody. The music industry is making as much revenue as it did at its 1990s peak, but little of that money is making it through to those who play the instruments or sing the tunes. As musicians, we have been left with little choice but to hold out our begging bowls and tell ourselves that something is better than nothing. But leaving Spotify is about more than the money. Spotify CEO Daniel Ek recently lead a €600m ($1.07bn) investment in a German defence company called Helsing, which specialises in AI-driven autonomous weapon systems, through his investment firm Prima Materia. Ek is also the chairman of Helsing, having joined the board in 2021 when his investment fund Prima Materia put €100m into the then-startup. Ek isn't paid a salary by Spotify - he takes a share of its stock, last year alone cashing out a reported $345m. So here we are, artists helping to build algorithms to sell our music - and the success of that algorithm determines the flow of wealth to a man who invests in building machines that could kill people. In recent years, we've witnessed the horror of AI drone wars in Ukraine and Gaza - children killed and hospitals destroyed with the press of the space bar. Ek is investing in technology that can cause suffering and death. Spotify used to seem like a necessary evil. By association, it now just seems evil. So I have decided to remove my music from the platform. Many other artists have done the same thing. The removal of my works won't make any significant dent in the company's profits. It won't change my earnings much either, but I can no longer be complicit. I don't want my songs - some written with survivors of conflict - to enrich a man who helps to fund weapons. And I am urging everyone else to quit Spotify. There are alternatives. These platforms (what a soulless word) are not perfect, but at least they aren't owned by individuals who align themselves with the arms race. If you're an artist, I ask you to think hard about where your music lives. If you're a listener, consider where your money goes. And as a music industry, let's think hard about who we take sponsorship from. We can't keep handing our creativity, our loyalty and our cash to amoral tech giants who see music as content and war as business. I'd rather earn nothing than profit from destruction. As Deerhoof succinctly put it in their statement on leaving Spotify: "If the price of 'discoverability' is letting oligarchs fill the globe with computerised weaponry, we're going to pass on the supposed benefit."

Spotify Made a Huge Mistake With AI

"We are currently working to take all of our music off of garbage hole violent armageddon portal Spotify." While Spotify users worm their way through a maze of AI-generated slop, the streaming giant's executives are dealing with an exodus of musicians after CEO Daniel Ek was working on a massive investment into an AI military weapons firm. Through his tech investment company, Prima Materia, Ek lead a $690 million funding round into Helsing, a German drone and AI weapons tech company, as reported by the Financial Times. Four years earlier, Ek -- who also holds a position as Chairman of Helsing -- led the German company's initial funding round, worth just under $114 million. Thanks to Ek's substantial backing, Helsing has grown into a firm valued at over $13.5 billion. In just a few short years, the weapons company has produced such freedom enhancers as loitering munitions, weaponized quadcopters, underwater surveillance drones, and autonomous fighter jets. The investment might be welcome news to the rapidly growing European weapons industry, but it went over like a lead balloon with musicians on Spotify, who began leaving the music platform in droves. Many of them took to social media to explain their decision to fans. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, a prolific Australian rock band with over 1.4 million monthly listeners on Spotify, announced the release of a demo collection alongside their departure. "New demos collection out everywhere except Spotify (f**k Spotify)," the band wrote. "You can bootleg if you wanna." They took further aim at the company in an Instagram story. "A PSA to those unaware: Spotify CEO Daniel Ek invests millions in AI military drone technology," the group posted on July 25. "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." After King Gizzard's bombshell decision, many fellow artists followed suit. "We are currently working to take all of our music off of garbage hole armageddon portal Spotify," wrote Xiu Xiu, an American experimental rock band. "For all the reasons you already know -- PLEASE CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION WITH SPOTIFY." San Francisco-based indie-rock group Deerhoof posted an extensive explanation on Instagram, calling on fellow culture workers to "take a stand on the important issues facing humanity." The band took aim at Spotify's extractive business model, the weaponization of Europe, Ek's massive wealth, as well as the billionaire CEO's union-busting efforts. "The current trend of Big Tech oligarchs taking increasing control over human affairs and attention, in which Ek has played a major role, is profoundly anti-democratic," Deerhoof wrote. "We don't want our music killing people. We don't want our success being tied to AI battle tech." Other artists boycotting the platform include folk singer Leah Senior, indie band Dr Sure's Unusual Practice, songwriter Nicholas Allbrook, and the Belgium record company Kalahari Oyster Cult label.