Artists and customers boycotting Spotify over AI use and CEO’s army tech

A number of weeks in the past, Melbourne musician Fenn Wilson introduced to followers that he was boycotting Spotify.

“All I said was … this may not make a major difference to them, but they never really made much of a difference to us either.”

His band, Fenn Wilson & The Weather, joins a rising listing of Australian artists who’ve pulled their full catalogues off the streaming platform, together with psych-rock band King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, folks artist Leah Senior and up to date musician David Bridie.

Similarly, American indie rock bands together with Deerhoof, Xiu Xiu, and Hotline TNT, have introduced their exit.

“But I think that if a bunch of us are able to get themselves off … then they start to sweat a little.”

Why are folks boycotting Spotify?

In June, it was revealed that Spotify’s chief govt, Daniel Ek, led a billion-dollar funding into Helsing, a German army expertise firm that specialises in growing synthetic intelligence programs.

It is one thing Fenn Wilson, and another musicians, say they needed to protest.

“I’ve always seen music as a sort of reflection of myself,” he says. “If it’s available on something that doesn’t reflect who I am, then I don’t think that it has a place there.

“To corrupt one thing that any person has made with stunning intent that harshly is unforgivable.”

It is not just artists — some listeners say they are boycotting too.

Hiro was a Spotify Premium user but tells triple j hack he stopped paying for a subscription after learning of the CEO’s investments.

He said his involvement in the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement against Israeli products, which responds to its actions in Gaza and the West Bank, meant he’s already mindful of where he spends his money.

“If I do not need to purchase a canned beverage as a result of its dad or mum firm invests lots in Israel, why am I paying like $11, $15 in order that the CEO can make investments that cash I paid to a weapons firm?”

A tipping level

Dr Sophie Freeman is a researcher of music streaming and algorithmic recommendation at the University of Melbourne. “We’re at a little bit of a tipping level proper now,” she says.

“People are positively making the change as a result of information that Daniel Ek is investing in AI battle tech. But … this has been happening for a very long time.”

Back in 2014, Taylor Swift removed her entire music catalogue from Spotify to protest what she said was the platform’s low royalty payouts to artists.

“And they nonetheless are [low],” Dr Freeman says, “which is one other massive cause folks is likely to be boycotting”.

A single track stream on Spotify may generate as little as $0.004 in royalties. Additionally, songs can’t earn income till they attain greater than 1,000 streams.

“In 2024, royalties generated by Australian artists from Spotify reached over $300 million, up 14 per cent since 2023,” a spokesperson for Spotify Australia told triple j hack.

Additionally, Spotify says “greater than half” of those royalties were generated by independent artists or labels.

But Fenn Wilson says this does not reflect his experience.

He released his first album in 2019, and estimates he has made “perhaps $200” from Spotify earnings throughout his entire time on the platform.

“Australian artists are usually not effectively represented on streaming providers,” Dr Freeman says. “Both artists and listeners are actually lacking out.”

The rise of AI-generated music

Another part of the growing backlash is Spotify’s use of AI tools and AI-generated music. And some listeners say they are concerned about whether “faux” music has already crept into their playlists.

“Hearing that it is a chance that you would be duped into listening to one thing that was created by an algorithm as a substitute of somebody’s arduous work … and love into the music, I did not like that,” Hiro says.

In June, a band called The Velvet Sundown released their debut album on Spotify, appearing across multiple user-specific “Discover Weekly” playlists.

It was not until it was confirmed by journalists that it was revealed The Velvet Sundown were not real.

The music and press shots of the “band” have been AI-generated, and Spotify — like most streamers — didn’t label them as such.

The Velvet Sundown still attracts more than 330,000 monthly listeners, which critics of Spotify say raises concerns about how this competes with real artists.

Spotify Australia has policies around AI use and takes steps to ensure AI doesn’t deceive subscribers or impersonate artists.

Spotify also has policies around taking down content that is deceptive.

Dr Freeman says major streamers are already saturated with content.

“The sheer quantity of music that’s going up on streaming platforms,” she says. “It’s about 100,000 songs each single day.

“The promise of getting discovered on Spotify is kind of not being fulfilled now.”

When it involves how a lot rights holders and artists are paid by competing providers, similar to Apple Music, TIDAL and YouTube Music, “there’s not that much difference between all of them”, says Dr Freeman.

“I think if you want to be supporting artists, which I know a lot of people do, the best thing you can do is buy music directly.”

The Spotify narrative

Spotify was based in Sweden in 2006 however formally launched in Australia in 2012. Along with different digital streaming platforms, it heralded the top of the music piracy period and the beginning of subscription-based entry.

Fenn Wilson says there’s an expectation for musicians to be on there.

“It felt like, if you weren’t on Spotify, then you may as well not release it,” he says.

Amy is a podcast producer and has been streaming music on Spotify for a decade.

“This narrative that Spotify has been able to push about themselves — that in their early days they were really shaking up the music industry,” she says. “Bring the facility away from these file corporations.

Amy cancelled and deleted her Spotify account, not long after reading a book by American music journalist Liz Pelly titled ‘Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist’.

In it, Pelly argues that music from major labels dominates featured playlists and content on Spotify.

“It’s only a fairly blatant instance of how the platform actually is not honest and is not an equitable system of treating artists,” Amy says.

Has streaming modified our listening habits?

Technology has long shaped the way we consume media, and the way streaming allows instantaneous access to a vast catalogue is no exception.

“My mind is simply wired to prioritise the comfort and the immediacy of it,” Hiro says. “I’m slowly attempting to get again right into a extra acutely aware listening expertise.”

The rise of playlists — as Pelly’s ebook argues — has prioritised passive music listening.

“We have all at one level used music as a motivational device or one thing within the background to attempt to preserve us centered,” Amy says.

Dr Freeman says that is by design. “The most important objective of Spotify … is to maintain us on the platform, preserve us engaged. And one of the simplest ways to do this is to provide us secure and acquainted content material.”

It means users might be finding it harder to discover new music, with recommendations potentially becoming a feedback-loop of songs already on rotation.

“If they serve up one thing that is slightly bit too exterior of your style or too on the market, then folks may go away and go to a different service,” Dr Freeman says.

Spotify is also impacting how we perceive the value of music.

“It was once like $25 for a CD,” Fenn Wilson says. “The undeniable fact that Spotify is paying as [little] as they’re now has diluted the worth of music.

The bells and whistles of Spotify

Spotify not too long ago elevated its Premium subscription costs and introduced ‘Lossless’ audio, allowing streaming at higher quality.

It joins latest options like AI DJ and AI Playlist, new “Mix” capabilities for “seamless transitions” between songs, and Spotify’s “daylist” — a playlist that adjustments all through the day to seize a consumer’s temper.

But Hiro is just not satisfied the worth of the service has improved.

“They had an AI DJ,” he says. “That didn’t stick with me … it kind of felt weird.”

The newer options additionally didn’t resonate with Amy, together with the annual “Spotify Wrapped”, which has copped warmth from customers over probably inaccurate and gimmicky information.

“The discourse around Spotify Wrapped being not as good as previous years,” Amy says. “You know, ‘You’re giving Princess Pony Pilates’ … seemed to be a swing and a miss.

“The push of attempting to have podcasts, video on the platform … the ‘daylists’; I believe it positively has misplaced some cultural cachet,” Amy says.

What subsequent?

Would Hiro, Amy or Fenn Wilson ever go back to Spotify? That is a resounding no.

They all collect and listen to vinyl records when they can. As for streaming, Hiro mainly uses Bandcamp and sometimes YouTube, while Amy and Fenn have switched to major streamer TIDAL.

Music by Fenn Wilson & The Weather is available on Bandcamp and all other major streamers.

In terms of supporting artists, Wilson says buying their music or merchandise and going to gigs is the best way to show up.

“I’m actually concerned with curation … and curators,” Dr Freeman says. “That is one thing that persons are actually linked to as a result of Spotify is a number of programmed or algorithmically beneficial music that is put into playlists.

“Buying music straight from the artist or shopping for it in a file retailer … you are having a direct connection,” she says. “It’s type of extra significant than getting a playlist made by a recommender system.”

But despite the boycott, Fenn Wilson thinks changing streaming services will not actually fix some of music’s deeper problems.

“I’d like to see … the federal government set a minimal fee in order that if there are these streaming platforms that come alongside and wish Australian artists,” he says. “Then that is how a lot you have to pay them.

“That would be a dream.”