Latest news with #DanielEk
The Herald Scotland
9 hours ago
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
Spotify CEO bankrolls AI military warfare while musicians walk away
Spotify, despite its ubiquity, has never been looked upon kindly by artists. The music streaming giant has spent years paying musicians by the fraction of a penny, covertly adding AI-generated and in-house commissioned songs to its playlists, and writing the rules as it sees fit on how its royalty system pays out. But now, CEO Daniel Ek has given the music world yet another reason to ditch the platform – this time, by pouring millions into playing business with high-tech war. Last week, Australian psych-rockers King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard yanked their entire catalog off Spotify, posting a blunt message on Instagram: 'We can't support a platform that profits from destruction'. They're not alone. A growing number of artists are cutting ties with Spotify after learning that Ek's investment firm, Prima Materia, is bankrolling Helsing, a German tech startup building AI systems for military drones and warfare. Read more: This extreme metal album blew up over a weekend – now it's accused of being AI Ek's investment firm first started their bankroll of Helsing in 2021, and recent reports from the Financial Times reveal they've just pumped in another €600 million. The musicians scraping by, and seeing paltry returns from their popularity on Spotify, are probably wondering what it's all for, other than fuelling the terrifying next generation of warfare. Truthfully, it will take a Taylor Swift or a Drake pulling out of the platform to cause any movement. Swift had previously taken her music off Spotify between 2014 to 2017, enraged by the bum deal offered to her through its royalty system. But in those years, Spotify was not quite the omnipresent juggernaut it is now – its huge gain in popularity in those years highlighted where music consumption was heading, but the total enmeshment between the major digital streaming services and the music industry was not quite yet complete. The idea of Swift removing her music from the platform would be much more radical now, but also much less likely. Many artists and projects removing themselves from Spotify are independent musicians, with sizeable enough audiences, but independent all the same. King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard are the biggest, averaging 1.5 million listeners a month on the platform, but the vast structure of such a space means their exclusion is negligible in the long run. Same could be said for the other artists leading the charge against Spotify. Acclaimed indie acts like Xiu Xiu and Deerhoof have joined the boycott, but their influence on the trajectory the platform takes shakes out to even less. Read more: The internet was my favourite thing in the world – now it just fills me with dread Still, musicians are boycotting Spotify, knowing all the risks to their own careers that it brings. The risk is simply worth it for them when trying to sleep soundly at night. Deerhoof made a scathing statement, equating their streaming revenue profits directly to the death toll of war. ''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,' read their statement. 'We don't want our music killing people. We don't want our success being tied to AI battle tech.' These artists know their boycotts won't touch Spotify financially, but the moral grace of taking a stand outweighs any financial loss. If musicians are squeezing for pennies in the streaming economy, then at least they might as well not be blood pennies. Spotify came onto the scene touting itself as a champion of artists, that the ease and use of streaming would inevitably democratise the process of music distribution. It once positioned its public image on this basis. But that has never been the case. Its business model has always prioritised growth and returns over dealing with anything close to fair artistic compensation. And with its CEO diverting hundreds of millions into advanced military AI technology, the disconnect between its image and its financial incentives has become too hard to ignore, too much of an ethical red line for any silence. Read more: Can we pass a law banning the sale of Highland cow AI art? For now, the boycott remains symbolic. Without major label artists with industry clout joining in, Spotify's bottom line will remain steady. But the growing discontent highlights the deeper issue of the music industry's reliance on these platforms, how they are now the only game in town worth playing, and how artists can be held at mercy over any basic ethical concerns they might have. For those musicians staying, the dilemma remains. Can they justify supporting a platform that funnels money into military AI, even if leaving means opting out of the biggest platform for their music? Either way, the conversation has begun, and it's a snowballing that the music industry will eventually not be able to ignore.
Yahoo
15 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Spotify boycott: Artists leave 'garbage hole' platform after CEO invests in AI weapons
Greg Saunier already had reasons to be wary of Spotify. The founder of the acclaimed Bay Area band Deerhoof was well acquainted with the service's meager payouts to artists and songwriters, often estimated around $3 per thousand streams. He was unnerved by the service's splashy pivots into AI and podcasting, where right-wing, conspiracy-peddling hosts like Joe Rogan got multimillion-dollar contracts while working musicians struggled. But Saunier hit his breaking point in June, when Spotify's Chief Executive Daniel Ek announced that he'd led a funding round of nearly $700 million (through his personal investment firm, Prima Materia) into the European defense firm Helsing. That company, which Ek now chairs, specializes in AI software integrated into fighter aircraft 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 said in a statement about the funding round. 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 said, in an interview with The Times. '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 won't make much impact on Spotify's estimated quarterly revenues of $4.8 billion. But it seemed to inspire others: several influential acts subsequently left the service, lambasting Ek for investing his personal fortune into an AI weapons firm. Spotify did not return request for comment about Ek's Helsing investments. Read more: Spotify walks back its controversial 'hate content' policy This small exodus is unlikely to sway Ek, or dislodge Spotify from dominating the record economy. But it may further sour young music fans 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 said. '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 around $9 billion, may seem an unlikely new player in the global defense industry. But his interest in Helsing goes back to 2021, when Ek invested nearly $115 million from Prima Materia and joined the company'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."] With his investment, Ek joined tech moguls Jeff Bezos and Palmer Luckey in pivoting from nerdier cultural pursuits (like online bookselling and virtual reality) into defense. The Union of Musicians and Allied Workers said 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.' Read more: 'If we don't get paid, songs don't get made': Songwriters take to the streets against Spotify A range of anti-Spotify protests followed later, like a songwriters' rally in West Hollywood in 2022 and a boycott of Spotify's 2025 Grammy party, after Spotify cut $150 million from songwriter royalties. Neil Young and Joni Mitchell pulled their catalogs in response to Rogan spreading misinformation about COVID-19. Yet eventually, both relented. 'Apple and Amazon have started serving the same disinformation podcast features I had opposed at Spotify,' Young said in a pithy note 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.' Ek's latest investment seems to have struck a nerve though, especially in the corners of music where Spotify slashed income to the point where artists have little to lose by leaving. After Deerhoof's announcement, the influential avant-garde band Xiu Xiu announced a similar move. 'We are currently working to take all of our music off of garbage hole violent armageddon portal Spotify,' they wrote. 'Please cancel your subscription.' Read more: Ava DuVernay is the latest artist to follow Neil Young's exit from Spotify because of Joe Rogan The Amsterdam electronic label Kalahari Oyster Cult had similar 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 significantly, the Australian rock band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard — an enormously popular group that will headline the Hollywood Bowl Aug. 10. — said last week that it would pull its dozens of albums from Spotify as well. 'A PSA to those unaware: Spotify CEO Daniel Ek invests millions in AI military drone technology,' the band wrote, announcing 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 said 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 moves with Prima Materia come as no surprise to Glenn McDonald, a former data analyst at Spotify who became well known for identifying trends in listener habits. McDonald was laid off in 2023, and has mixed feelings about the company's priorities today. It's both the arbiter of the record industry and a mercurial tech giant that only became profitable last year while spinning off enormous wealth for Ek. 'It's well documented that Spotify was only a music business because that was an open niche,' McDonald said. '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.' Read more: Comedians wanted Spotify to pay them more royalties. Their albums were removed McDonald said the company's push toward Discovery Mode — where artists accept a lower royalty rate in exchange for better placement in its algorithm — added to the sense that Spotify is antagonistic to working artists' values. More recently, Spotify rankled progressives when it sponsored a Washington, D.C., brunch with Rogan and Ben Shapiro celebrating President Trump's return to the White House, and raised $150,000 for Trump's inauguration (Apple and Amazon also donated to the inauguration). While Ek's investments in Helsing are not directly tied to Spotify, the money does come from personal wealth built through his ownership of Spotify's stock. Fans are right to make a moral connection between them, McDonald said. 'Ek represents Spotify publicly, and thus its commitment to music. Him putting money into an AI drone company isn't representing that,' McDonald said. '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 looking to leave the service, the actual process of getting off Spotify varies. For King Gizzard, which releases its catalog on its own record labels, it was easy to remove everything quickly. Deerhoof and Xiu Xiu needed time to clear the move with several labels and former band members who receive royalties. Being a smaller, autonomous band enabled Saunier to act according to his values, even at the cost of some meaningful slice of income. He has considered that, by torching his band's relationship with Spotify, Deerhoof's music could slip from away from some fans. 'Everyone I know hates Spotify, but we've been conditioned to believe that there is no other option,' he said. '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.' Read more: Letters to the Editor: Neil Young put his money where his mouth is. Spotify did not Yet the only artists that might genuinely sway Ek's investments would be ones with a global reach on the caliber of Swift. She has pulled her catalog from Spotify before, in 2014 just 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 said, before eventually returning to Spotify in 2017. It's hard to imagine her, or other comparable pop acts, taking a similar stand today, especially as the major labels' fortunes are so bound up in Spotify revenues. Spotify reported a $10 billion payout to rights holders in 2024, roughly a quarter of the entire global recorded music business. Its stock has surged 120% over the last year, but in the second quarter of 2025, the firm missed earnings targets and dropped 11% this week, for the stock'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 said in an earnings call. This recent, small exodus most likely didn't contribute to that. But it might add to a creeping sense among young listeners that Spotify is not a morally-aligned place for fans to enjoy beloved songs. 'I actually think Spotify will eventually go the way of MySpace. It's just a get-rich-quick scheme that will pass, become uncool, one that had its day and is probably in decline,' Saunier said. 'They wrote an email to me seemingly to do face saving, which makes me think they're more desperate than we think.' Read more: Joni Mitchell returns to Spotify two years after boycott over Joe Rogan's COVID-19 'lies' Acts like Kneecap, Bob Vylan and others have been outspoken around the war on Gaza, at real risk to their careers — proof that young fans care deeply about these issues. While Ek would argue that Helsing helps Ukraine and Europe defend itself, others may not trust 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 said. He thinks fans and artists can morally stay on Spotify, but hopes they build toward a more ethical record industry. 'It's hard to see what 'stay and fight' consists of, but if everyone leaves, nothing gets better," he said. "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 looks forward to finding out how that might work. 'I don't expect Daniel Ek to pay attention to us, though it would be cool if he did,' Mackenzie said. '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.' Get notified when the biggest stories in Hollywood, culture and entertainment go live. Sign up for L.A. Times entertainment alerts. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
15 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard Have Officially Bailed From Spotify
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard made a bold move over the weekend in regards to their online musical presence, completely removing their entire discography from Spotify. Their sole presence on the platform as of July 29th, 2025 are four songs featured on compilation albums: 'Phantom Island', 'Le Risque', 'The Dripping Tap' and 'Daily Blues'. Their remix of Confidence Man's 'Sicko', from the group's remix album 5am (La La La) from April 2025, also remains on the platform. The psych-rock sextet revealed their decision on Saturday (July 25th), as they shared a new compilation entitled Demos Vol. 7 + Vol. 8 – noting it was available 'everywhere but Spotify'. To make their position exceptionally clear, they followed this up by adding: 'Fuck Spotify.' An Instagram story by the band was then shared, with the background of the story featuring a photo of the controversial and heavily criticised AI-generated band The Velvet Sundown, who have accumulated over 1.3 million monthly listeners on Spotify and released three albums despite not actually existing. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – 'Le Risque' 'A PSA for those unaware: Spotify CEO Daniel Ek invests millions in AI military drone technology,' the band wrote. '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.' King Gizzard are the latest, and arguably the most prominent, act to join an ongoing boycott against the platform over Ek's involvement with Helsing, a company he chairs that develops military drones, surveillance and AI software. Internationally, groups such as Deerhoof and Xiu Xiu have pulled their music from the platform in protest, while locally acts like Dr. Sure's Unusual Practice, Leah Senior and Hugh F. have done the same. 'We need to send a message that this is not OK, and that's going to affect your business,' said Dr. Sure's frontman Dougal Shaw in a statement shared to the band's Instagram account. 'They're taking the fruits of our labour and using it to fund the war machine. We're not going to let your business just tick over. We have very little impact [with] our little boycott, I'm aware of that, but there needs to be solidarity. We need to come together. There needs to be established artists, whose absence will actually be felt, to come on board. Let's collectively draw a line in the sand.' King Gizzard will be touring nationally in December; the full details are available here. Tame Impala Returns With New Single 'End Of Summer' triple j's Hottest 100 Of Australian Songs: The Complete List Baker Boy Announces Long-Awaited New Album 'Djandjay', Shares 'Lightning' The post King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard Have Officially Bailed From Spotify appeared first on Music Feeds. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Spotify (SPOT) Tumbles 11.55% as Earnings Disappoint
We recently published . Spotify Technology S.A. (NYSE:SPOT) is one of the worst-performing stocks on Tuesday. Spotify Technology snapped a three-day winning streak on Tuesday, shedding 11.55 percent to close at $620.01 apiece as investors sold off positions following a disappointing earnings performance in the first half of the year. In a statement, Spotify Technology S.A. (NYSE:SPOT) said it swung to an attributable net loss of 86 million euros from a net income of 274 million euros in the same period last year, despite revenues increasing by 10 percent to 4.19 billion euros from 3.8 billion euros year-on-year. Photo by Norbert Buduczki on Unsplash Heading into the third quarter, Spotify Technology S.A. (NYSE:SPOT) expects revenues to end at 4.2 billion euros, assuming a 490-basis point headwind to year-on-year growth due to foreign exchange movements. However, it expects total premium subscribers to increase by 5 million to end at 281 million. 'People come to Spotify and they stay on Spotify. By constantly evolving, we create more and more value for the almost 700 million people using our platform,' said Spotify Technology S.A. (NYSE:SPOT) founder and CEO Daniel Ek. 'This value not only benefits users but it's attracting more people to streaming and as a result, it's also boosted the industries of music, podcasts, and audiobooks.' While we acknowledge the potential of SPOT as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an extremely cheap AI stock that is also a major beneficiary of Trump tariffs and onshoring, see our free report on the . Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Euronews
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Euronews
Artists revolt against Spotify over CEO's investment in AI warfare
The prolific Australian psych-rock group King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard is the latest band to cut ties with Spotify in protest of CEO Daniel Ek's increasing ties with the arms industry - specifically his investment in a controversial AI-driven military tech firm. Ek co-founded the investment firm Prima Materia, which has invested heavily in Helsing, a German company developing AI for use in warfare, including drone technology. The Financial Times recently reported that Prima Materia led a €600 million funding round for Helsing and had previously backed the company before Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The news has sparked strong backlash from musicians who say they no longer want to be associated with a platform whose profits are being funnelled into weapons development. King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, known for hits like 'Work This Time' and 'Robot Stop', have removed nearly all of their music from Spotify, only leaving a few releases due to existing licensing deals. They announced the decision on Instagram, stating their new demos were available 'everywhere except Spotify,' adding 'f*** Spotify.' A post shared by Deerhoof (@deerhoof) Other artists have taken similar action. American indie group Deerhoof posted a statement saying they don't want their "music killing people" and described Spotify as a 'data-mining scam.' Experimental rock group Xiu Xiu also criticised the platform, calling it a 'garbage hole armageddon portal" and urged fans to cancel their Spotify subscriptions. These protests add to a growing list of controversies and concerns surrounding the streaming platform. Spotify recently came under fire after allowing an AI-generated band called Velvet Sundown, which has managed to rack up millions of streams, to appear on its platform with a 'verified artist' badge. Euronews Culture's very own music aficionado David Mouriquand described it as "a prime example of autocratic tech bros seeking to reduce human creation to algorithms designed to eradicate art." He added: "When artists are expressing real, legitimate concerns over the ubiquity of AI in a tech-dominated world and the use of their content in the training of AI tools, the stunt comes off as tone-deaf. Worse, morally shameless." And while Spotify announced in its Loud & Clear 2024 report that it paid over $10 billion (€9.2 billion) to the music industry in 2024 alone, critics argue that most of those payouts go to just a small percentage of top artists and labels, and that the platform still underpay and exploit the vast majority of musicians. Icelandic musician Björk put it most bluntly: 'Spotify is probably the worst thing that has happened to musicians.'
