this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2025

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'Technofascist military fantasy': Spotify faces boycott calls over CEO’s investment in AI military startup (www.middleeasteye.net)

submitted 1 week ago by geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml to c/technology@lemmy.world

112 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Spotify, the world’s leading music streaming platform, is facing intense criticism and boycott calls following CEO Daniel Ek’s announcement of a €600m ($702m) investment in Helsing, a German defence startup specialising in AI-powered combat drones and military software.

The move, announced on 17 June, has sparked widespread outrage from musicians, activists and social media users who accuse Ek of funnelling profits from music streaming into the military industry.

Many have started calling on users to cancel their subscriptions to the service.

“Finally cancelling my Spotify subscription – why am I paying for a fuckass app that works worse than it did 10 years ago, while their CEO spends all my money on technofascist military fantasies?” said one user on X.

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[–] BigBenis@lemmy.world 18 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I stopped using Spotify long ago because of their shitty business practices. Producing a product they killed support for within just a couple years without reimbursing customers and producing huge amounts of e-waste. Jacking their subscription prices twice in one year. Apparently, they also donated to Trump despite not being an American company?? That's to say nothing of their shitty recommendation algorithm, which just plays your most played tracks over and over. Good riddance.

For those interested, I use Tidal now. I'm satisfied with, their recommendation algo is fine and the higher quality streaming is really nice but nothing I've used has ever been as good as Google Play Music, I found so much good music though that service and could upload whatever I was missing. Once Tidal inevitably pisses me off, I'm going to move on to self hosting.

[–] kassiopaea@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 6 days ago

Being able to upload to Google Play Music was such a great feature. Honestly though, maybe it's best that they killed it when they did. That way it can live on in memory as the example of what a music streaming service should be like... instead of becoming an enshittified zombie like spotify is today.

[–] SuperSpruce@lemmy.zip 13 points 6 days ago

Funny enough, for local downloads of video game OSTs (which I like way too much), I've been recently turning to Steam of all things. Often cheaper than Bandcamp and DRM-free!

[–] vorb0te@lemmynsfw.com 12 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Helsing supplies Ukraine which is defending itself in accord with international law and the UN Charter. An attacked nation defending itself against Russian aggression. Nothing wrong with that. Basically the opposite of Russian Z-fascism.

[–] SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca 17 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Yeah, it seems they also didn't mention that it's a European defense company, not a US defense company.

Europe is investing a lot into defense now and it's actually a good thing that they're moving away from dependence on the US defense industrial complex.

Spotify sucks tho. But that's a separate thing.

Clickbait article.

[–] head_socj@midwest.social 6 points 6 days ago (2 children)

I empathize with the sentiment and agree with the argument that Europe should invest in its own defense infrastructure, particularly if Putin is gearing up to make a move.

That being said, Im increasingly wary of Europe's willingness to appease Trump, and find it probable that, if right-wing parties continue making political gains, this same infrastructure will be turned against marginalized communities in these same countries; in a similar vein to the U.S regime's attacks against immigrants and dissenters.

Again, I'm not opposed to re-armament, but I hope EU citizens exercise more vigilance and skepticism in this era of resurging nationalism and protectionism.

[–] SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Everyone knows what Trump is. Trump is demanding an increase in military spending with the expectation that the money will go to the US. He's basically demanding tribute.

Saying "sure we'll spend more on defense" while spending on our own defense industry is calling his bluff while also getting ready for if and when he starts using the US military to bully allies.

Nobody else in the world needs to be lectured about the problems with the US military industrial complex. We know.

[–] head_socj@midwest.social 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Sharing my thoughts isnt lecturing. Sit down and stop being condescending.

[–] SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca -1 points 6 days ago

"Sit down and stop being condescending." -- someone that doesn't lecture people

[–] PalmTreeIsBestTree@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

A lot of money being invested in Euro defense right now.

[–] rimjob_rainer@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

What's up with the cool startup names recently? First Palantir the fortune teller ball, now Helsing the vampire hunter? Fuck yeah, who doesn't invest in these? /s

[–] Ledericas@lemm.ee 4 points 6 days ago

thiel has an obsession with lotr, so he named all his evil companies after various lotr themes.

[–] suddenlyme@lemmy.zip 4 points 6 days ago

I thought we were already boycotting this shit

[–] yumyumsmuncher@feddit.uk 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Jokes on them, I moved to CD and love it

[–] AlphaOmega@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago

Got 80GB of music on my phone, tried Spotify once, it was all live versions....

[–] tomenzgg@midwest.social 3 points 6 days ago

I can't speak for how viable it is for success or whether it's just a grift (as I haven't had the time to really research into it) but feels like as good a time as any to mention that, out in Australia, The Pack Music Cooperative is fundraising for a cooperative music streaming service: https://www.thepackaustralia.com.au/

They haven't raised a lot towards their goal, yet, and could probably use an the help they can get. As a cooperative, they'll side step a lot of the probably problems a corporation like Spotify or Tidal will have and they already are dedicated to prioritizing artists and their rights.

[–] dustyData@lemmy.world 0 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Must be so nice to be so privileged as to be spoiled for choice on which fascist to support.

Spotify is the only streaming service available worldwide other than YouTube Music and Apple.

So for a lot of people it is either piracy or supporting a US tech megacorporation. Tidal, Qobuz, deezer. Cool, nice that they exist options. But most people in the planet would have to also pay a VPN and hope to not get their account banned if they want to use some of those alternatives.

It's funny really, to see how the “fascist option” for some is actually the most ethical for others.

There's always piracy of course, I suppose that is the only morally correct option always.

[–] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Yarr

Is there a p2p music streaming platform yet?

[–] octobob@lemmy.ml 5 points 6 days ago

It requires a bit more effort but Soulseek has been around for years. I build my own music library from P2P or buying on Bandcamp. It all goes on my NAS and I stream it via Plexamp. I have my own library, my fiance's, a few friend's on there. I'm pushing 10k albums at this point.

I know I used to have an adblocked version of Spotify on my phone for convenience sake but I think they finally caught on and killed that. The AUR version still works for me however. I haven't had a Spotify subscription since probably like 2018.

[–] Balaquina@lemmy.ca 134 points 1 week ago (12 children)

I boycotted them a long time ago when I found out they donated to Trump's campaign, despite being a Swedish company.

[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 3 points 6 days ago

i boycotted them when i found out they streamed drm-protected lock-in music back then, and charged us a subscription for it.

[–] PrivateNoob@sopuli.xyz 50 points 1 week ago

Wow didn't know that.

[–] positiveWHAT@lemmy.world 38 points 1 week ago

I also newly started boycotting them for the same reasons. Plus they don't give enough to the musicians, and support AI music.

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[–] ryper@lemmy.ca 50 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

“Finally cancelling my Spotify subscription – why am I paying for a fuckass app that works worse than it did 10 years ago, while their CEO spends all my money on technofascist military fantasies?” said one user on X.

You shouldn't be "paying for a fuckass app that works worse than it did 10 years ago" regardless of anything an executive has done. Be less lazy and cancel subscriptions to shitty services.

Also, if a CEO doing a bad thing is a dealbreaker for them, why the fuck are they on twitter?.

[–] kibiz0r@midwest.social 74 points 1 week ago (12 children)

I think one of the most toxic things on Lemmy is the prevalence of judging normies for using incredibly popular services and ascribing it to a character defect instead of life just being too complex for most people to be able to prioritize exploring more ethical technology choices.

[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 27 points 1 week ago (2 children)

You're not wrong. There are lots of holier-than-thou types around here.

[–] devfuuu@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago

And they are all correct.

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[–] hopesdead@startrek.website 35 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Dude, you should have stopped using Spotify when they let Joe Rogan on their platform… or when they started hosting fake music.

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[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 28 points 1 week ago

Always worth keeping in mind that these fuckers are selling snake oil to one another under the guise of national security.

This technology is dangerous not because it works as advertised but because it creates a vacuum of responsibility for when the very manual killing starts

Israel's Lavender AI is a great example of this in action. It doesn't work in any meaningful way. All it does is label casualties in a bombing run as "terrorists" after the fact.

[–] EstonianGuy@lemm.ee 21 points 1 week ago

Spotify CEO also donated millions to trump campaign.

[–] criss_cross@lemmy.world 20 points 1 week ago (11 children)

What are the Spotify alternatives people recommend?

[–] 1995ToyotaCorolla@lemmy.world 24 points 1 week ago (7 children)

IIRC Tidal and Qobuz should be good alternatives

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