The Topline
- A growing wave of indie artists – including King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard and Montreal’s Godspeed! You Black Emperor – have removed their music from Spotify in protest over CEO Daniel Ek’s investment into “AI murder drones”
- This wave of departures reflects a broader shift in how artists are prioritizing ethics, direct fan relationships, and sustainable revenue models – and are encouraging fans to follow suit.
Financing a monster
Spotify’s CEO Daniel Ek is funneling billions into Helsing , an AI-powered weapons company that develops drone and surveillance tech for the military. For critics, this isn’t some neutral investment, it’s complicity in the future of autonomous warfare. Every monthly subscription you pay helps line the pockets of someone literally financing the war machine
The platform has had a problematic relationship with artists for years – its low-ball streaming payouts (between three and five cents per stream) and embrace of controversial podcaster Joe Rogan prompted Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, among others, to pull their music from the platform back in WHEN (though Young’s music has since returned).
Millions of streams are required to make any meaningful income whatsoever for artists, so unless they’re Drake or Beyonce, they’re relying on a model that earns them pennies – while Spotify rakes in billions. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the platform has also been prioritizing AI-generated music in its algorithms, potentially as a means to withhold royalty payments to artists altogether and pocket that revenue (though Spotify has denied that claim).
As more artists pull out (and they will – Hotline TNT pulled out last week ), the social value and archival completion of Spotify shrinks. Can’t get your Gizzard fix anymore? Find somewhere else to go.
SO WHAT?
There’s greater competition out there in 2025, which pays its artists better and whose executives conduct themselves more ethically. Bandcamp, for example, provides direct support to artists and offers higher cuts. Tidal also offers better payouts, artist ownership stake and greater audio quality than Spotify. Apple Music, whose parent company is in no way an archetype of sainthood, offers higher royalties than Spotify, has better audio quality, and now let's users import playlists from Spotify and other streaming services.
Cancelling will have no meaningful effect
Spotify’s interface, algorithmic playlists, and sheer usability are arguably unrivalled. For a lot of listeners, Spotify is their source for new music. It’s a mood-setter and a daily planner.
Moving to another service means re-creating playlists (though there are third-party apps that can help port libraries over) and training a new algorithm. That’s a headache most people won’t endure for an abstract protest.
And while some artists are pulling out, their music is still infinitesimal to the overall catalogue (King Gizzard colossal library notwithstanding). Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and Drake are still available, along with everything else that 99 per cent of the music casual listeners actually stream.
You think they’re playing “ The Dead Flag Blues ” at Brandy Melville? They are not. And who the hell even is Hotline TNT?
It’s worth noting Godspeed! has also pulled most of its music off Tidal, Amazon Music and Apple Music as well. You know why? Well, I don’t know exactly, they haven’t said, but the notoriously anti-establishment Montrealers once included a map of how all the major record labels are economically connected to major defense manufacturers inside one of their album sleeves . Their decision to pull their music forces the question: If you’re gonna cancel Spotify – why not cancel the rest as well? ( Bandcamp’s cool though ).
Not to mention, while most artists make virtually no money off the platform, Spotify is an effective discovery tool for new fans. Plus, leaving the platform alienates fans who feel stuck on Spotify given the huge number of artists remaining on the platform – at least for now.
This punishes everyone except the executives. The money is still rolling in .
SO WHAT?
Spotify has 600+ million users. Cancelling one subscription (or even a few thousand) won’t shake the company, won’t starve Daniel Ek, and won’t dismantle the war machine. What it will do is make your life a little more annoying when having to switch between apps to listen to Nonagon Infinity.
