Greg Saunier already had causes to be cautious of Spotify. The founding father of the acclaimed Bay Space band Deerhoof was effectively acquainted with the service’s meager payouts to artists and songwriters, typically estimated round $3 per thousand streams. He was unnerved by the service’s splashy pivots into AI and podcasting, the place right-wing, conspiracy-peddling hosts like Joe Rogan acquired multimillion-dollar contracts whereas working musicians struggled.
However Saunier hit his breaking level in June, when Spotify’s Chief Govt Daniel Ek introduced that he’d led a funding spherical of almost $700 million (by means of his private funding agency, Prima Materia) into the European protection agency Helsing. That firm, which Ek now chairs, focuses on AI software program built-in into fighter plane like its HX-2 AI Strike Drone. “Helsing is uniquely positioned with its AI leadership to deliver these critical capabilities in all-domain defence innovation,” Ek mentioned in an announcement concerning the funding spherical.
In response, Deerhoof pulled its catalog from Spotify. “Every time someone listens to our music on Spotify, does that mean another dollar siphoned off to make all that we’ve seen in Gaza more frequent and profitable?” Saunier mentioned, in an interview with The Occasions. “It didn’t take us long to decide as a band that if Daniel Ek is going harder on AI warfare, we should get off Spotify. It’s not even that big of a sacrifice in our case.”
A small band yanking its catalog received’t make a lot influence on Spotify’s estimated quarterly revenues of $4.8 billion. Nevertheless it appeared to encourage others: a number of influential acts subsequently left the service, lambasting Ek for investing his private fortune into an AI weapons agency.
Spotify didn’t return request for remark about Ek’s Helsing investments.
This small exodus is unlikely to sway Ek, or dislodge Spotify from dominating the file economic system. However it could additional bitter younger music followers on Spotify, as many are outraged about wars in Gaza and elsewhere.
“There must be hundreds of bands right now at least as big as ours who are thinking of leaving,” Saunier mentioned. “I thought we’d be fools not to leave, the risk would be in staying. How can you generate good feelings between fans when musical success is intimately associated with AI drones going around the globe murdering people?”
Swedish mogul Ek, with an estimated wealth round $9 billion, could seem an unlikely new participant within the world protection business. However his curiosity in Helsing goes again to 2021, when Ek invested almost $115 million from Prima Materia and joined the corporate’s board. [Helsing, based in Germany, says it was founded to “help protect our democratic values and open societies” and puts “ethics at the core of defense technology development.”]
Together with his funding, Ek joined tech moguls Jeff Bezos and Palmer Luckey in pivoting from nerdier cultural pursuits (like on-line bookselling and digital actuality) into protection. The Union of Musicians and Allied Employees mentioned then that Ek’s actions “prove once again that Ek views Spotify and the wealth he has pillaged from artists merely as a means to further his own wealth.”
A spread of anti-Spotify protests adopted later, like a songwriters’ rally in West Hollywood in 2022 and a boycott of Spotify’s 2025 Grammy social gathering, after Spotify minimize $150 million from songwriter royalties. Neil Younger and Joni Mitchell pulled their catalogs in response to Rogan spreading misinformation about COVID-19.
But finally, each relented. “Apple and Amazon have started serving the same disinformation podcast features I had opposed at Spotify,” Younger mentioned in a pithy observe in 2022. “I hope all you millions of Spotify users enjoy my songs! They will now all be there for you except for the full sound we created.”
Daniel Ek, founder and CEO of Spotify, in 2023.
(Noam Galai / Getty Pictures for Spotify)
Ek’s newest funding appears to have struck a nerve although, particularly within the corners of music the place Spotify slashed revenue to the purpose the place artists have little to lose by leaving.
After Deerhoof’s announcement, the influential avant-garde band Xiu Xiu introduced the same transfer. “We are currently working to take all of our music off of garbage hole violent armageddon portal Spotify,” they wrote. “Please cancel your subscription.”
The Amsterdam digital label Kalahari Oyster Cult had related reasoning: “We don’t want our music contributing to or benefiting a platform led by someone backing tools of war, surveillance and violence,” they posted.
Most importantly, the Australian rock band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard — an enormously in style group that can headline the Hollywood Bowl Aug. 10. — mentioned final week that it could pull its dozens of albums from Spotify as effectively. “A PSA to those unaware: Spotify CEO Daniel Ek invests millions in AI military drone technology,” the band wrote, asserting its departure. “We just removed our music from the platform. Can we put pressure on these Dr. Evil tech bros to do better?”
“We’ve been saying ‘f— Spotify’ for years. In our circle of musicians, that’s what people say all the time for well-documented reasons,” the band’s singer Stu Mackenzie mentioned in an interview. “I don’t consider myself an activist, but this feels like a decision staying true to ourselves. We saw other bands we admire leaving, and we realized we don’t want our music to be there right now.”
Ek’s strikes with Prima Materia come as no shock to Glenn McDonald, a former knowledge analyst at Spotify who turned well-known for figuring out developments in listener habits. McDonald was laid off in 2023, and has blended emotions concerning the firm’s priorities in the present day. It’s each the arbiter of the file business and a mercurial tech big that solely turned worthwhile final yr whereas spinning off monumental wealth for Ek.
“It’s well documented that Spotify was only a music business because that was an open niche,” McDonald mentioned. “I’m never surprised by billionaires doing billionaire things. Google or Apple or Amazon investing in a company that did military technology wouldn’t surprise me. Spotify subscribers should feel dismayed that this is happening, but not responsibility, because all the major streamers are about the same in moral corporate terms.”
McDonald mentioned the corporate’s push towards Discovery Mode — the place artists settle for a decrease royalty fee in alternate for higher placement in its algorithm — added to the sense that Spotify is antagonistic to working artists’ values. Extra not too long ago, Spotify rankled progressives when it sponsored a Washington, D.C., brunch with Rogan and Ben Shapiro celebrating President Trump’s return to the White Home, and raised $150,000 for Trump’s inauguration (Apple and Amazon additionally donated to the inauguration).
Whereas Ek’s investments in Helsing aren’t straight tied to Spotify, the cash does come from private wealth constructed by means of his possession of Spotify’s inventory. Followers are proper to make an ethical connection between them, McDonald mentioned.
“Ek represents Spotify publicly, and thus its commitment to music. Him putting money into an AI drone company isn’t representing that,” McDonald mentioned. “He can do whatever he wants with his money, but he is the face of a company as controversial and culturally important as Spotify. So yeah, people want to hold him to a less neutral standard.”
For artists seeking to depart the service, the precise means of getting off Spotify varies. For King Gizzard, which releases its catalog by itself file labels, it was simple to take away all the pieces shortly. Deerhoof and Xiu Xiu wanted time to clear the transfer with a number of labels and former band members who obtain royalties.
Being a smaller, autonomous band enabled Saunier to behave based on his values, even at the price of some significant slice of revenue. He has thought-about that, by torching his band’s relationship with Spotify, Deerhoof’s music may slip from away from some followers.
“Everyone I know hates Spotify, but we’ve been conditioned to believe that there is no other option,” he mentioned. “But underground music is filled with so many beautiful examples of a mom-and-pop business mentality. I don’t need to dominate the world, I don’t need to be Taylor Swift to be counted as a success. I don’t need a global reach, I just need to provide myself a good life.”
But the one artists that may genuinely sway Ek’s investments can be ones with a world attain on the caliber of Swift. She has pulled her catalog from Spotify earlier than, in 2014 simply after releasing her smash album “1989.”
“Music is art, and art is important and rare. Important, rare things are valuable. Valuable things should be paid for,” she mentioned, earlier than finally returning to Spotify in 2017.
It’s arduous to think about her, or different comparable pop acts, taking the same stand in the present day, particularly as the main labels’ fortunes are so sure up in Spotify revenues. Spotify reported a $10 billion payout to rights holders in 2024, roughly 1 / 4 of the whole world recorded music enterprise. Its inventory has surged 120% over the past yr, however within the second quarter of 2025, the agency missed earnings targets and dropped 11% this week, for the inventory’s worst day in two years. “While I’m unhappy with where we are today, I remain confident in the ambitions we laid out for this business,” Ek mentioned in an earnings name.
This current, small exodus almost definitely didn’t contribute to that. Nevertheless it may add to a creeping sense amongst younger listeners that Spotify shouldn’t be a morally-aligned place for followers to take pleasure in beloved songs.
Acts like Kneecap, Bob Vylan and others have been outspoken across the conflict on Gaza, at actual threat to their careers — proof that younger followers care deeply about these points. Whereas Ek would argue that Helsing helps Ukraine and Europe defend itself, others could not belief his judgment.
“Maybe it’s silly to expect cultural or moral leadership from Daniel Ek, but I don’t want it to be silly,” McDonald mentioned. He thinks followers and artists can morally keep on Spotify, however hopes they construct towards a extra moral file business.
“It’s hard to see what ‘stay and fight’ consists of, but if everyone leaves, nothing gets better,” he mentioned. “If we’re going to get a better music business, it’s going to come from somebody starting over from scratch without major labels, and somehow building to a point where we have enough leverage to change the power dynamic.”
King Gizzard’s Mackenzie seems to be ahead to discovering out how that may work. “I don’t expect Daniel Ek to pay attention to us, though it would be cool if he did,” Mackenzie mentioned. “We’ve made a lot of experimental moves in music and releasing records. People who listen to our music have been conditioned to have trust and faith to go on the ride together. I feel grateful to have that trust, and this feels like an experiment to me. Let’s just go away from Spotify and see what happens.”
