King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have pulled almost their entire extensive back catalogue from Spotify.
The prolific Australian band first pointed to a potential move away from the streaming platform when taking to Instagram this week to promote the release of a new demos collection. Writing on social media, they told fans the release was out “everywhere except Spotify (fuck Spotify)”. They followed that up with a further statement shared in an Instagram Story, in which they confirmed that they opposed investments in military technology by Spotify CEO Daniel Ek.
The band wrote: “Hello friends. A PSA to those unaware: Spotify CEO Daniel Ek invests millions in AI military drone technology. 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.”
In addition to being the the co-founder and chief executive of Spotify, Ek is the founder of an investment fund called Prima Materia, which recently reportedly led a new round of investment in Helsing, a defence company that sells software that uses artificial intelligence to support the actions of different nations’ militaries. Prima Materia has been investing in Helsing since 2021, and the defence company currently operates in the United Kingdom, Germany and France.
The band have followed Xiu Xiu and Deerhoof in removing their music from Spotify with those two acts also taking the step to cut ties with the streaming platform in the past month.
