Xiu Xiu has announced that they are in the process of removing their music from Spotify, over CEO Daniel Ek’s “investment in AI war drones”.
Last week, the San Jose rock trio took to social media to announce their plans, stating: “We are currently working to take all of our music off of garbage hole violent armageddon portal Spotify.” They continued, Xiu Xiu went on to say: “It is taking longer than we had hoped due to [procedural] complications, but will be completed soon. Thanks for the support and patience.”
They then exclaimed: “For all the reasons you already know — PLEASE CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION WITH SPOTIFY.” In a caption on their post, the band added, “Spotify uses music money to invest in war drones.” According to Consequence, the band has received “full support” from their three main labels: Polyvinyl, Kill Rock Stars, and Graveface.
Xiu Xiu’s announcement comes after the news that Ek’s investment company, Prima Materia, is investing in Helsing, a German company that builds drones and artificial intelligence for military operations, per the Financial Times.
It’s certainly not unprecedented for artists to hop off the Spotify bandwagon. Even Snoop Dogg previously came out against the company and threatened to jump ship for Tune.FM, telling Billboard, “I don’t fuck with Spotify anymore. I’m only on Tune.FM.”
Previously, Snoop alleged that he was making very little money from the streamer. “They just sent me some shit from Spotify, where I got a billion streams,” he said during an appearance on the Business Untitled podcast. “My publisher hit me. I said, ‘Break that down, how much money is that?’ That shit wasn’t even $45,000.”
In response to Sboop, a Spotify spokesperson said: “We can’t speak to endorsement deals for Web3 companies but … $45K for a billion streams? It’s well documented that a billion streams on Spotify generates millions of dollars to rights holders.”
“It’s unfortunate to hear that Spotify’s payments didn’t make it through to Snoop,” the spokesperson added. “Snoop’s a legend and, hopefully now that he owns Death Row Records, he’s seeing more of that money.”
The post Xiu Xiu Pulling Their Music From Spotify, Criticize CEO Daniel Ek: ‘Garbage Hole Violent Armageddon Portal’ appeared first on VICE.
