Calls to Boycott Spotify Grow After Daniel Ek Invests €100M In Mil-Tech

Boycott Spotify
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Boycott Spotify
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Photo Credit: Fortune Live Media / CC by 2.0

Music lovers everywhere are calling for a boycott of Spotify after CEO Daniel Ek revealed a €100 million investment in a mil-tech company.

Digital Music News reported the investment in Helsing after Ek announced it on November 9. Ek is also joining Helsing’s board after the investment. Helsing says its AI tech will be used for “defense and national security” to provide “information advantage for democratic governments and “keep liberal democracies from harm.”

Many Spotify users are angry and jumping ship to competitors for their music streaming. The hashtag #BoycottSpotify is trending on Twitter, where several artists have promoted the cancellation of their accounts.

“#BoycottSpotify now! Cancel your subscription today. Artists and music lovers must not support the military AI industry. Register your anger at the Spotify involvement in sponsorship of Arms Corporations. This is so vile. Music is NOT war. Just wrong on every level,” tweets Darren Sangita, a music producer.

“AI means using computers to process information a hundred times faster, so they accurately deliver a higher kill ratio,” Sangita told Resident Advisor. “Music is being used as a weapon. I can’t sign up to that, so I’ve already unsubscribed and now plan to take all my music down from Spotify. We believe in music as a powerful tool for peace; otherwise, it’s a complete contradiction of our music philosophy.”

Some alternative services artists and musicians are recommending include Tidal and Deezer. The response to Daniel Ek’s announcement hasn’t been too positive – with calls to boycott Spotify starting quickly.

A quick glance at the Twitter comments beneath the initial announcement show most people are displeased with the investment. Despite the heavy criticism from musicians, artists, and even regular Spotify users – Daniel Ek hasn’t responded to the calls to boycott Spotify.

Helsing was founded in 2021 and calls itself a “new type of security and artificial intelligence company” that aims to turn “unstructured sensor date into information advantage for democratic governments.”

NaturalMotion Founder Torsten Reil co-founded the company and currently serves as CEO. Former German Federal Ministry of Defense Special Commissioner Gundbert Scherf has signed on as President and COO.

20 Responses

  1. Donald Trump

    lol im so sure who the f is gonna cancel spotify over that?

    • guest

      me, I’m gonna switch to more fair platform Apple Music or Napster (still capitalist but well)

      • Puffy Pants

        Capitalism brought you your fancy cell phone and your government handouts.

    • Oni Morvitsu

      F Spotify. The fact that anyone uses it is a complete mystery. Consumer suckers.

  2. fuck everyone

    the latest and greatest from the woke army who waste their short lives being miserable. congrats once again, fucking pathetic garbage. Anyone realize that we’ve been in modified house arrest for 2 years? Anyone ready to boycott that?

    • Native Earthling

      You must be the only one on ” House Arrest “, Americans are too stupid to realize how good they actually have it, but always complaining, never positive.

  3. terminator dupont

    Can’t wait for racist algorithms helping soldiers in telling who are their enemies on the field.

  4. Blobbo

    For CHRISTS SAKE, WHY DOESN’T SOMEONE FORM A BETTER STREAMING COMPANY? JFC! F THE MAJOR LABELS! MAKE IT A NON-PROFIT FOR INDEPENDENTS ONLY!

    DANIEL ECK iS A JERK! NO POINT IN POSTING ON HIS SITE ANYWAY, UNLESS you’re a CURRENT artist on a major label! He f*cks legacy artists, and he f*cks unsigned artist.

    WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO GET RID OF THIS PARASITE on MUSIC?

    • Tidal?

      Maybe it takes you. Maybe no one is forming a better streaming company because you’re not doing it. Do it.

    • Molintu Bjaggri

      It will take more capitalizing in posts on sites that get very little attention or traffic.

  5. brainman

    lol this is retarded. As if any of the big global streaming platforms are any better. None of the heads of those companies actually care about music. They only care about growth and getting richer.

  6. [email protected]

    Danieln Ek is such vile scum. Everything about Spotify is rotten and I am glad that I left their at that point unusable service a long time ago.

    Let alone their unconsented (and kind of illegal) secret updating, without you being able to stop it, and in addition and thereby not only deteriorating the app, but also do user-data farming on a daily basis…
    I knew all their data farming had a sinister reason. Now we see the real face of that dumb fuck.

    His face is already tellingly ugly. You can see it in that dumb shit head that he is a psychopath, just like you can see it in Jeff Bezos’, Elithabeth Holmes’, Bill Gates’, Hillary Clintons, Kamala Harris’, Nancy Pelosis and many mores shit face.

    • Arrest Daniel Ek

      Add to your list of psychopath shit faces: donald trump, donald trump jr, ivanka trump, rand paul, ted cruz, rudy guliani, linsey graham, fucker carlson, mike pence, lauren boobert, marjorie taylor green ¯\(°_o)/¯ ¯\(°_o)/¯ ¯\(°_o)/¯ ¯\(°_o)/¯ ¯\(°_o)/¯

  7. Ek is vile scum

    Danieln Ek is such vile scum. Everything about Spotify is rotten and I am glad that I left their at that point unusable service a long time ago.

    Let alone their unconsented (and kind of illegal) secret updating, without you being able to stop it, and in addition and thereby not only deteriorating the app, but also do user-data farming on a daily basis…
    I knew all their data farming had a sinister reason. Now we see the real face of that dumb fuck.

    His face is already tellingly ugly. You can see it in that dumb shit head that he is a psychopath, just like you can see it in Jeff Bezos’, Elithabeth Holmes’, Bill Gates’, Hillary Clintons, Kamala Harris’, Nancy Pelosis and many mores shit face.

    • Scumbags

      Add to your list of psychopath shit faces: donald trump, donald trump jr, ivanka trump, rand paul, ted cruz, rudy guliani, linsey graham, fucker carlson, mike pence, lauren boobert, marjorie taylor green ¯\(°_o)/¯ ¯\(°_o)/¯ ¯\(°_o)/¯ ¯\(°_o)/¯ ¯\(°_o)/¯