Boycotting Spotify

I’ve permanently removed all the music in my control from Spotify. I am also in talks with past labels I’ve released on, as I don’t hold the copyrights to that music anymore… hoping I can get that removed too, eventually. But today I can happily say that as for Kin is Kin Music and all music I release otherwise going forward, none of it will be on Spotify.

Why?

1. Daniel Ek has now invested more than 700 million Euros in high tech weapons company Helsing, also effectively buying him a seat as the Chairman. Music is about peace, love, and connection… I will not stand by as my love for my fellow humans is transformed into profit used to develop killer AI drones and other such horrors.

2. Spotify makes profit by vastly underpaying the artists who actually create value. Small artists are not paid the same per play as big artists, payola schemes (“Discovery Mode”), and in the last year, they further attacked independent artists by refusing to pay anything at all to any tracks under a thousand streams.

3. Spotify’s discoverability (for artists and listeners) has been junked by the way they themselves have flooded the system with AI generated music and bottled playlists. Spotify has been known to harshly punish creators for accidentally having their music end up on a botted playlist, and yet they continue to push fake AI artists with seemingly no repercussions (see: “Velvet Sundown”) and hire ghost producers on buyout to fill their playlists, so that they have to payout less to artists.

It is no longer viable, as both artists and listeners, to use this platform any more. Ciao, Spotify. Won’t miss ya …