Massive Attack have announced their intentions to remove their music from Spotify.
On Thursday (September 18), the Bristol trip-hop icons issued a statement saying that they’d asked their record label, Universal Music Group, to take their songs off of the streaming service.
The act is in protest against Spotify CEO Daniel Ek’s €600 million (£520 million) investment in the military AI company Helsing, and follows multiple other artists, including Australian rockers King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, stepping down from the service in recent weeks.
Massive Attack have also declared their involvement in the No Music For Genocide campaign: an initiative of more than 400 artists and labels who are blocking their music from services in Israel, protesting against the country’s military actions in Gaza and the West Bank.
The band say via social media: “In support of the No Music For Genocide initiative, Massive Attack have made a formal request to our record label (Universal Music Group) that our music be removed from all DSP streaming services in the territory of Israel.”
They add: “Unconnected to this initiative and in light of the (reported) significant investments by its CEO in a company producing military munition drones and AI technology integrated into fighter aircraft, Massive Attack have made a separate request to our label that our music be removed from the Spotify streaming service in all territories.”
Ek, who co-founded Spotify with Martin Lorentzon in April 2006, is the chairman of Helsing, whose software uses AI to analyse weapons system data and inform military decisions in real time. According to The Guardian, a Spotify spokesperson says, “Spotify and Helsing are two totally separate companies,” and states that Helsing is not involved in the situation in Gaza. They add that Helsing is, however, involved in “Europe defending itself in Ukraine”.
Earlier this week, a United Nations commission accused Israel of committing genocide in Palestine. Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Daniel Meron, called the report “scandalous” and “fake”, arguing that the country had a right to defend itself following attacks from Hamas in October 2023 that killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages. More than 64,000 people have been killed and 160,000 injured in Gaza since then.
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard removed their music from Spotify in July, also in protest against Ek’s funding of Helsing. The band wrote in their Instagram stories: “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.”
After removing their music from Spotify, King Gizzard added their albums to online music marketplace Bandcamp and let listeners pay what they want to download them. The band quickly dominated the service’s charts: in early September, the top 27 albums on Bandcamp were all made by King Gizzard.
Massive Attack haven’t put out an album since 2010’s Heligoland, but founding member Robert “3D” Del Naja said last year that they hope to release new music in 2025. On Monday (September 15), the band announced a show in São Paulo with support from Max Cavalera and his brother Iggor, both formerly of Brazilian extreme metal titans Sepultura.
