US band Deerhoof are quitting Spotify, removing all of their back catalogue from the service following Spotify CEO’s Daniel Ek’s investment in German weapons tech company, Helsing.
The much loved ex-punks have released 20 albums since their 1997 debut, The Man, the King, the Girl – an album which was recorded on 4-track cassette. It’s safe therefore to say that in technology terms Deerhoof have seen it all come and go over the years. However, Ek’s latest moves have prompted the band to call it quits and pull the plug on any further relations with the world’s biggest music platform.
The run-in follows the April release of their latest album, Noble and Godlike in Ruin, which will now have to find a different route to market, alongside their entire back catalogue.
Trouble was brewing after Ek became chairman of Helsing, a German company specializing in AI military software. Ek’s appointment came after the reported investment of $700 million of his estimated $10.3 billion fortune into the weapons tech company.
The move completes a not entirely ‘good look’ for Ek, following revelations that Ek himself pockets more money than any of the musician’s hosted on his platform, intertwined with ongoing concerns that the service fails to pay its artists sufficient recompense for their hard work and talents.
It appears that this problematic scenario, teamed with Ek placing that money into the weapons industry, has become a little too much for Deefhoof to swallow.
“We don’t want our music killing people,” the band said in a statement earlier this week. “‘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 success being tied to AI battle tech.”
The band also served up the grim reality that the decision to pull all their music was “a pretty easy decision for us. Spotify only pays a pittance anyway, and we earn a lot more from touring. But we also understand that other artists and labels do rely on Spotify for a bigger chunk of their income, and don’t judge those who can’t make the same move in the short term.”
Helsing describes itself as “a new type of defence company”. “We provide precision mass and autonomous capabilities to democracies so that they can deter and protect,” the secretive German company says. Helsing’s work manifests itself as data harvesting tech for sensors on drones, able to map out battlezones and provide reconnaissance in real time.
Ek became involved with Helsing back in 2021 after the founding of his own Prima Materia investment company (along with Spotify investor Shakil Khan) which pledged to invest $1 billion into European "moonshots." Prima Materia then became an early investor in Helsing, allowing Ek to become its chairman.
"The more of the killing you can get computers to do, the better your bottom line."
“AI battle tech is clearly emerging as the hot new big ticket item for the super-rich. It’s increasingly clear that the military and police exist primarily as the security detail for the billionaire class,” Deerhoof explain. “The more of the killing you can get computers to do, the better your bottom line.
“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.”
“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 computerized weaponry, we’re going to pass on the supposed benefits.”
While the band remain unsure as to how long the takedown will take they promise their fans that it will be “as soon as possible” and “want to thank our various labels for their support on this tricky decision”.
If and when more big names decide that they want to follow suit, we’ll keep you posted.
