The Pop Corporation

Another day, another band leaving Spotify. If this is a sign of things to come, it’s worth pointing out that this is very embryonic at the moment, with most artists remaining on the service – but there does seem to be something in the air.

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard are the latest group to ditch the streaming platform, and frontman Stu Mackenzie has something to say.

While royalty rates have long been criticised, it’s Spotify founder Daniel Ek’s involvement in investment company Prima Materia, which has contributed to the investment in drones and artificial intelligence for military operations which has particularly rankled.

King Giz actually already wrote a missive on social media which said: “Hello friends. 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.”

Now, Mackenzie says of their initial reaction to Ek’s involvement in military operations: “A bit of shock, and then feeling that I shouldn’t be shocked. We’ve been saying fuck Spotify for years. In our circle of musician friends, that’s what people say all the time, for all of these other reasons which are well documented.”

He continued that while he doesn’t necessarily “really consider myself an activist, and I don’t feel comfortable soapboxing,” the band “don’t really want our music to be here, at least right now… this feels like a decision staying true to ourselves, and doing what we think is is right for our music, having our music in places that we feel all right about.”

“The thing that made it hard was I do want to have our music be accessible to people. I don’t really care about making money from streaming. I know it’s unfair, and I know they are banking so much. But for me personally, I just want to make music, and I want people to be able to listen to it. The hard part was to take that away from so many people.”

He continued: “I don’t expect Daniel Ek to pay attention to this. We have made a lot of experimental moves with the way we’ve released records — bootlegging stuff for free. We have allowed ourselves a license to break conventions, and the people who listen to our music have a trust and a faith to go along on this ride together. I feel grateful to have the sort of fan base you’ll just trust, even when you do something a little counterintuitive.”

“Why does this have to be a big deal? It actually feels like we’re just trying to find our own positivity in a dark situation.”

Deerhoof and Xiu Xiu have also removed their music from the platform, while frontman for Cradle of Filth – Dani Filth – said that he “owes it” to other artists to not to have an account, adding to the sentiment from Charlie Benante, drummer for Anthrax, who said streaming is “where music goes to die.”