“We don’t want our music killing people”
A major indie band has announced it is removing its music from Spotify over the news that the streaming giant’s co-founder and CEO Daniel Ek’s investment firm has made major investments in the defence company Helsing.
Deerhoof – who have toured with the likes of Radiohead, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Flaming Lips and Beck – made the announcement on their Instagram account on June 30.
In that post, the band said: “We’re taking Deerhoof off 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. We don’t want our music killing people. We don’t want our successes being tied to AI battle tech.”
The statement went on to say: “Ai battle tech is clearly emerging as the hot new big ticket item for the super rich. It’s increasingly clear that the military and police exist primarily as the security detail for the billionaire class. The more of the killing you can get computers to do, the better your bottom line.”
Later, the band said: “Spotify is flushing itself down the toilet. Eventually artists will want to leave this already widely hated data-mining scam masquerading as a “music company.””
Helsing is a defence firm involved in producing military drones and artificial intelligence for battle scenarios.
According to data from Spotify, Derhoof have over 100,000 monthly listeners on the platform.
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
Image credit: ronaiandras – Creative Commons
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