King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard Pull Catalog From Spotify Over Daniel Ek’s Investment in Defense Tech Company
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard are yanking their catalog from Spotify, the Australian rock band confirmed on Friday, citing founder Daniel Ek‘s investment in a military defense company.
“Hello friends, A PSA to those unaware: Spotify CEO Daniel Ek invests millions in AI military drone technology,” the band wrote in an Instagram Story on Friday. “We just removed our music from the platform. Can we put pressure on these Dr. Evil tech bros to do better? Join us on another platform.”
King Gizzard is most likely referring to Helsing, a German defense technology company that Ek’s investment firm Prima Materia led a $700 million investment round on last month. Ek is also chairman of Helsing.
King Gizzard is pulling an extensive catalog of nearly 30 albums; as of this story’s publication, King Gizzard had about 1.5 million monthly Spotify listeners. At press time, just 2022 EP Satanic Slumber Party is left on the platform.
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A representative for Spotify didn’t immediately respond to request for comment.
King Gizzard is the latest and highest-profile artist to pull their catalog from Spotify over the past month since news of Prima Materia’s investment surfaced. Deerhoof announced their intent to pull their music at the end of June, stating that, “We don’t want our music killing people. We don’t want our success being tied to AI battle tech.”
Experimental rock band Xiu Xiu similarly said they were pulling their music yesterday, calling Spotify a “garbage hole violent Armageddon portal.”
This of course isn’t Spotify’s first time facing artists pulling their music over controversies. Both Neil Young and Joni Mitchell pulled their catalogs over misinformation about the Covid vaccine aired on Joe Rogan’s podcast. Both artists’ music came back on the platform last year.
