“We don’t want our music killing people”: Rock band quits Spotify over CEO Daniel Ek’s military investmentsLast month, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek led a €600 million round of investment in Helsing, a company which develops AI software to enhance military weapons and other equipment. Ek is also Helsing’s chairman.
In response, San Francisco art-rock band Deerhoof have announced plans to remove their music from the streaming platform, and issued a lengthy statement explaining their reasoning.

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“We don’t want our music killing people,” the band writes in a new Instagram post. “We don’t want our success being tied to AI battle tech.”
Noting that the decision to remove their music from the platform was “pretty easy” as “Spotify only pays a pittance anyway”, the band adds that they “don’t judge those who can’t make the same move in the short term” if a larger chunk of their income comes from Spotify.
“AI battle tech is clearly emerging as the hot new big ticket item for the super-rich,” they go on.
“It’s increasingly clear that the military and police exist primarily as the security detail for the billionaire class. The more of the killing you can get computers to do, the better your bottom line.
“Computerised targeting, computerised extermination, computerised destabilisation for profit, successfully tested on the people of Gaza, also finally solves the perennial inconvenience to war-makers – It takes human compassion and morality out of the equation.”
Continuing to harshly criticise Spotify itself, Deerhoof accuse the company of “flushing itself down the toilet”.
“Eventually artists will want to leave this already widely-hated data-mining scam masquerading as a ‘music company’,” they say.
“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.”
While Spotify enables users from anywhere in the world to discover any artist who uploads to the platform, Deerhoof say “if the price of ‘discoverability’ is letting oligarchs fill the globe with computerised weaponry, we’re going to pass on the supposed benefits”.
“The big picture is this: Our politico-economic system increasingly presents humanity with a hideous fait accompli: Buy from me, vote for me, consume my media, use my service,” the statement continues. 
“Yes, it means mass deportation, mass detainment, and mass extermination of those deemed unprofitable by a handful of rich white people living in enclaves protected by AI weaponry. But if you don’t, you cannot have a job. We think this dilemma is coming to a head soon, and we predict that most people aren’t going to take the billionaires’ side.”
Deerhoof’s music remains on Spotify at the time of writing, but say removal will happen “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.”

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Learn more about Helsing at its official website.
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