Indie-rock stalwarts Deerhoof will be removing their music from Spotify. “‘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,” the band wrote in a statement shared online. “We don’t want our music killing people. We don’t want our success being tied to AI battle tech.”
Along with being the the co-founder and chief executive of Spotify, Daniel Ek is the founder of an investment fund called Prima Materia. It was reported earlier this month that Prima Materia led a new round of investment in Helsing, a defense company that sells software that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to inform military decisions. Prima Materia has been investing in Helsing since 2021, and the new round of funding amounts to 600 million euros ($693.6 million). Helsing currently operates in the United Kingdom, Germany, and France.
Beyond the opposition to Ek and Prima Materia’s investments, Deerhoof criticized Spotify’s utility for artists and status as a music-discovery platform. “Spotify is flushing itself down the toilet,” the band said. “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 continued: “One of the claims often made about Spotify is that it theoretically makes one’s music discoverable by anyone who signs up, no matter how remote they may be from the self-proclaimed centers of hipness. But just because someone is far from Western gatekeepers does not mean they lack culture, or need to hear our band. 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.”
Deerhoof closed their statement by acknowledging that their disappearance from Spotify will not be immediate. “We aren’t sure exactly how soon the takedowns can happen, but it will be as soon as possible,” they wrote. “We want to thank our various labels for their support on this tricky decision. The grunt work of pulling content off of Spotify is something they’re now tasked with, and they are sharing the financial hit. We know we are asking them to make a sacrifice, and it means a lot to us.”
Joyful Noise Recordings, the label behind numerous Deerhoof releases, shared a statement in support of Deerhoof’s decision to leave Spotify. “Since the dawn of streaming, independent artists and labels have essentially been forced to participate alongside various streaming entities in order to survive, entities that are often funded by sources that do not align with our values,” the label wrote.
“As an independent record label, we serve the artist,” Joyful Noise continued. “It is ultimately their decision to present their material on whichever platforms they choose. It is with this in mind that we hold no judgement towards any artist that wishes to keep their music on the platform.”
The label concluded: “However, we encourage any true music lover to buy directly from artists or the label as much as possible. This ensures financial sustainability for the artist and independent label community that supports them.”
Deerhoof, who recently released the new album Noble and Godlike in Ruin, join Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, India.Arie, and Crosby, Stills & Nash as artists who have pulled music from Spotify in recent years.
Young, who has long criticized digital streaming platforms for audio-fidelity reasons, pulled his catalog from Spotify in 2022 in opposition to the platform’s then-exclusive deal with podcaster Joe Rogan. At the time, he said that Rogan was spreading misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic. He returned his music to Spotify in 2024 after Rogan’s Spotify exclusivity ended and his podcast became available on competing platforms from Apple and Amazon.
Joni Mitchell pulled her music from Spotify in solidarity with Neil Young, as did Graham Nash. Mitchell returned to Spotify in 2024, while Nash and his band Crosby, Stills & Nash’s boycott lasted a handful of months. India.Arie protested Spotify around the same time as Neil Young, too, but she returned to the platform in 2023.
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