PLEASE READ!!! - spotify rant

im genuinely so pissed off. ive written this twice and both times accidentally closed the tab. anyways.

general rant

as you probably saw by the title, this is an angry rant about spotify and the shitty company it is. please read this, as although i know most people know about the situation, i would like to get my view across :)

as you may know, spotify’s owner, daniel ek (everybody boo), has recently invested in a german ai war technology company called hellsing. you may have heard about the investment on the news, or through bands such as king gizzard, massive attack, deer hoof, tiki taane, etc. removing their music from spotify. (im hoping more punk bands remove their music from spotify too cause supporting war and ai isn’t very punk)

its not the biggest surprise that spotify have invested in ai, what with all their shitty “[insert random meaningless word] mix” playlists, or the countless bands and artists on the platform that have turned out to be ai generated, but war tech?? seriously??

ek’s investment is very public news, so why do so many people still use the platform? why to people choose to be voluntarily ignorant? People say theyre “punk”, “environmentalists”, whatever, yet still support the platform. how can we make the world safer and kinder when loads of people still choose to fund companies that invest in things like helsing? how do people choose to support helsing when the two main things its known for – ai and war tech – will eventually tear the world apart, whether it be destroying the environment or ending millions of lives?

Alternatives

so, with the very angry rant out of the way, what are some good alternatives to spotify?

there are many platforms that (to the best of my knowledge) don’t fund shitty things like spotify does. some of these include deezer (what ive been using), youtube music, bandcamp (great if youre looking to support independent/local artists as they can actually make a profit off of it, did i mention spotify pays its artists literal dirt?), soundcloud (also great for supporting independent artists), etc. tidal was on this list before but apparently the owner is a zionist, so i wouldnt suggest using that (like dont. please.)

if you have access, physical media is also a pretty great alternative – so things like cds and records. not only do they (in my opinion) sound a lot better than listening to music on something like a phone, but artists actually profit off of physical media sales (not that much, but a lot more than spotify).

conclusion

obviously, boycotting one shitty company isnt gonna fix everything. its not gonna stop other companies from funding things they shouldn’t, and its definitely not gonna solve world peace. but it is a start, and if enough people boycott spotify, as well as other companies (linked below), then we as a society will be able to move in the right direction. we cant all be perfect, and what with all the terrible in the world, we are most likely gonna end up accidentally supporting other shitty things that were not aware are shitty, but we can at least try to be aware and make a difference.

- robbie xo

Boycott

websites with info about other things to boycott - Boycott Israel - A Simple List to Boycotting Israeli Companies, Should we boycott Eurovision? Here's why people are turning off this year | The National, Why I’m boycotting AI - UnHerd, Which US brands can I boycott in protest against Trump?

Further info

AI has an environmental problem. Here’s what the world can do about that., Chatbots Have Stolen Fanfiction From a Gift Culture, Artists and users boycotting Spotify over AI use and CEO's military tech - ABC News,  8 Reasons Why Spotify Is Now the 'Worst' Music Streaming Platform | Headphonesty, European AI unicorn Helsing to launch fleet of killer drones, Helsing, a new AI defense company, is caught in controversy_LLI(LatLongInfo)