This past July, Australian prog-rock band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard removed their discography from Spotify in protest of CEO Daniel Ek’s multi-million-dollar investment in a German AI military drone company. Now, the band is “trying to see the irony” in what feels like a “truly doomed” situation.
Earlier in December, an AI clone of King Gizzard quietly appeared on Spotify. Crudely named King Lizard Wizard, the “band” had a discography of tracks with identical titles to popular King Gizzard hits. The artwork also weakly attempted to emulate King Gizzard’s notably surreal album covers, while the AI-generated music itself fell short of the original’s psych-rock influences.
King Gizzard frontman Stu Mackenzie stated that he’s “trying to see the irony in this situation.” An AI clone poorly attempting to fill the void of King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard months after they publicly denounce Spotify for shady investments and embrace of AI? As Mackenzie put it, “Seriously wtf – we are truly doomed.”
Spotify Removed King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard AI Clone, But Faith in the Platform Continues to Publicly Wane
Spotify addressed the King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard AI clone, removing the fake artist from its platform. But, as a reminder, Spotify has already made statements embracing AI, so the gesture falls a little flat.
“Spotify strictly prohibits any form of artist impersonation,” the company said, per a report from The Guardian. “The content in question was removed for violating our platform policies, and no royalties were paid out for any streams generated.”
Meanwhile, as Spotify Wrapped dropped at the beginning of the month, more and more grassroots organizations are calling for boycotts of the platform. Complaints range from AI slop clogging up Daily Discover playlists and Daniel Ek’s unsavory investments to ICE recruitment ad jump-scares. Essentially, the ethics of using Spotify are becoming muddied every day. Not to mention the long-standing issue of Spotify paying artists the least per individual stream, as Welsh band Los Campesinos! recently revealed in a detailed breakdown of their 2025 earnings.
Many individuals in the music industry have voiced concern about this rush to embrace AI in music. After Universal Music Group joined up with AI platform Udio, U.S. Music Artists Coalition founder Irving Azoff expressed apprehension.
“Every technological advance offers opportunity, but we have to make sure it doesn’t come at the expense of the people who actually create the music – artists and songwriters,” said Azoff. “[A]rtists must have creative control, fair compensation and clarity about deals being done based on their catalogues.”
Photo by Roberto Ricciuti/Redferns
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