The Pop Corporation

One of the great enemies of culture and society in the 2020s, has been Big Tech. As convenient as the whole thing has been, younger people are getting subscription fatigue, social media seems to have been a failed experiment, and Big Tech got in bed with authoritarians and are the billionaire class.

A point has been reached where big players from medical insurance companies are getting murdered in the street, billionaires are buying platforms to influence discourse and steer election results, and people are protesting grotesque billionaire weddings. Artificial intelligence is scraping the online spaces to steal the work of writers, artists, musicians and the rest, to provide a product that is as reviled as it is popular.

We haven’t seen the likes of this for a while, and the proletariat seem to have had it up to here.

Spotify has come in for a fair amount of flak, with musicians hitting out at the meagre royalty payments, and now worse still, Spotify founder Daniel Ek is getting involved in warfare.

The group Deerhoof have spoken about this whole mess this week, saying: “‘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… we don’t want our music killing people. We don’t want our success being tied to AI battle tech.”

This follows the news that Ek is the founder of Prima Materia, which is a defence business that sells software to guide military decisions, using artificial intelligence. It’s a collision of bleak behaviour, and of course, musicians are at odds with this pro-war activity.

Deerhoof continued: “Spotify is flushing itself down the toilet. Eventually artists will want to leave this already widely hated data-mining scam masquerading as a ‘music company.’ It’s creepy for users and crappy for artists. Music-making lasts forever but this or that digital get-rich-quick scheme is sure to become obsolete.”

“One of the claims often made about Spotify is that it theoretically makes one’s music discoverable by anyone who signs up, no matter how remote they may be from the self-proclaimed centres of hipness. But just because someone is far from Western gatekeepers does not mean they lack culture, or need to hear our band. Deerhoof is a small mom and pop operation, and know when enough is enough. We aren’t capitalists, and don’t wish to take over the world. Especially if the price of ‘discoverability’ is letting oligarchs fill the globe with computerised weaponry, we’re going to pass on the supposed benefits.”

“We aren’t sure exactly how soon the takedowns can happen, but it will be as soon as possible. We want to thank our various labels for their support on this tricky decision. The grunt work of pulling content off of Spotify is something they’re now tasked with, and they are sharing the financial hit. We know we are asking them to make a sacrifice, and it means a lot to us.”

Ek is investing over £600m into this new tech, and given that he’s made his money on the back of musicians, it isn’t surprising that artists would feel aggrieved by this.

The Spotify founder predicted a backlash, saying: “I’m sure people will criticise it and that’s OK. Personally, I’m not concerned about it. I focus more on doing what I think is right and I am 100% convinced that this is the right thing for Europe,” referencing the battleground in Ukraine.

Elsewhere, regarding Deerhoof’s statement, record labels who stand to lose some income from this, shared their views.

Joyful Noise Recordings, who have released a number of Deerhoof records, released their own statement: “Since the dawn of streaming, independent artists and labels have essentially been forced to participate alongside various streaming entities in order to survive, entities that are often funded by sources that do not align with our values.”

“As an independent record label, we serve the artist. It is ultimately their decision to present their material on whichever platforms they choose. It is with this in mind that we hold no judgement towards any artist that wishes to keep their music on the platform.”