My band Transistor Riot, with our five-song EP Fear the Future, and two subsequent singles Burn and Arson, have voluntarily removed our music from Spotify. I’m sure you’ve heard from other musicians who have also removed their music about the evil done by Spotify CEO Daniel Ek. Our reasons for removing our music from the platform is much the same.

In addition to the recent investment in Skynet-esque weapons of warfare, Spotify has long been an antagonistic force towards independent musicians. Make no mistake, it was conceived and executed primarily as a platform to sell ad space. Presented as a lifeline to the music industry that had been seeing a massive revenue slump, Spotify’s creators biggest previous experience had been in digital marketing.

In spite of the miraculous increase in music industry revenue, music by independent artists is now worth less than ever before thanks to Spotify strong-arming a price of less than half a cent per play. I genuinely would rather you pirate my music than tell me I’m worth less than half a cent.

The Joe Rogan Experience is frequently featured as the number one podcast on the Spotify chats. This is a podcast run by a man who spreads misinformation about vaccines, who denies climate change, and who frequently platforms far-right American Fascists. Spotify saw fit to spend $100 million to acquire his backcatalog and make him part of its original programming.

Keep in mind that’s hundreds of millions of dollars expropriated from every musician on the platform.

Not content simply to rip off customers and artists alike, Spotify has been searching for ways to cut artists out of the picture. Spotify frequently gives preferential treatment to music made under its own auspices, some of which has been created without any human intervention at all through generative AI. All of this is done to further devalue music on the platform and keep more revenue for itself.

Money made from Spotify has already been used to cut independent artists out of the music industry. Money made from Spotify has already been used to amplify far-right talking points through the Joe Rogan Experience and others. Money from Spotify is now being invested in making machines that kill people with AI.

Go listen to Transistor Riot somewhere else. We’re on Bandcamp. It’s also really cool if you pirate our music.