All the artists leaving Spotify

On July 25, Australian band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard took to Instagram to announce that they pulled their music from Spotify. They were the latest group to abandon the platform in the wake of reports that Spotify CEO and co-founder Daniel Ek secured millions for defense company Helsing through his investment fund, Prima Materia.

Helsing, a German tech startup, was initially founded in 2021 as an AI defense software company and has since expanded into military strike drone manufacturing, per Bloomberg. Co-founded by Ek and Shakil Khan, Prima Materia first invested in Helsing in 2021 and has recently raised another $600 million in support of the company, Financial Times reports.

The news has led to backlash against Spotify, which has already been the subject of numerous controversies in the past year, including its platforming of AI music and reported “ghost artist” schemes that decrease the money paid to real artists.

Here are all the groups who have decided to boycott the platform.

Hotline TNT is the latest band to remove their catalog from Spotify. On August 22, the New York-based quartet announced that they'd be pulling their music from the streaming platform.

"The company that bills itself as the steward of all recorded music has proven beyond the shadow of a doubt that it does not align with the band's values in any way," frontman Will Anderson wrote in a statement. "A cooler world is possible."

On June 30, indie-rock band Deerhoof announced that they will be removing their music from Spotify in a lengthy statement posted to Instagram. “‘Daniel Ek uses $700 million of his Spotify fortune to become chairman of AI battle tech company’ was not a headline we enjoyed reading this week,” the statement began. “We don’t want our music killing people. We don’t want our success being tied to AI battle tech.”

The statement also criticized the platform itself, calling it a “data-mining scam” and a “get-rich-quick scheme.” The band said that they are not sure exactly when they will be able to remove the music, but that they have initiated the process.

Australian rock group King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard announced that they pulled their music from Spotify on July 25.

“Hello friends,” they wrote on their Instagram story. “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.”

Xiu Xiu announced they would be moving on from Spotify on July 24.

“We are currently working to take all of our music off of garbage hole armageddon portal Spotify,” they wrote. “It is taking longer than we had hoped due to procedurally [sic] complications but will be completed soon.” They concluded the statement by thanking fans and urging them to cancel their Spotify subscriptions.

The Kalahari Oyster Cult label decided to pull their catalogue from the streaming service on June 26. “As a label, and in consultation with the artists we represent, we don’t want our music contributing to or benefiting a platform led by someone backing tools of war, surveillance, and violence. Keeping our work on Spotify would mean going against everything we stand for,” they wrote. Read their full lengthy Instagram statement here.

Australia-based folk singer Leah Senior joined the artists boycotting the platform on July 1. Her announcement also called out Spotify for underpaying artists.

The indie band took to Instagram on July 3 to announce that their new record will not be on Spotify.

Australian musician David Bridie published an op-ed in the Guardian on July 31 explaining his stance for pulling his music from Spotify as an independent artist.

"But leaving Spotify is about more than the money," he wrote. "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. 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."

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The trip-hop legends revealed on September 17 that they had asked their label to remove all of their music from Spotify worldwide. The economic burden that has long been placed on artists is now compounded by a moral and ethical burden, whereby the hard-earned money of fans and the creative endeavours of musicians ultimately funds lethal, dystopian technologies. Enough is more than enough. Another way is possible." Simultaneously, Massive Attack announced their support of "No Music For Genocide,” an artist-driven boycott of Israel urging musicians and labels to geo-block their music from Israel.

On September 24, Angel Deradoorian confirmed she has pulled all of her solo music from Spotify and stated that the company's approach to music was " too egregious to ignore."

This story will be updated.