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 month ago by cm0002@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.zip

14 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.

all 17 comments

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[–] rumschlumpel@feddit.org 23 points 1 month ago

said one user on X.

The irony.

[–] Ledericas@lemm.ee 7 points 1 month ago

shouldve boycotted the moment they housed joe rogan on the platform.

[–] pulsewidth@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

How about just boycott it because it's terrible for artists? It pays four tenths of a tenth of a cent per stream ($0.004), while raking in billions of profit each year.

Spotify's whole business model is exploitation.

Listen to music on whatever service, then if you like the artists music - buy the album, or the track / single. Sure, you may support fewer artists this way, but each artist gets paid literally 2500 times as much (album averages 9.99).

[+] Eyekaytee@aussie.zone 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

[removed by mod]

[–] pulsewidth@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Didn't confuse them with anyone, they put out a quarterly report as all publicly-traded companies do, and they're on track to do over $2 billion in profit this year ($17b revenue).

What I didn't go into depths to describe is that the vast majority of their money goes to big labels and several big artists they have less-favourable (to Spotify) contracts with, because those big labels and artists know they can pressure Spotify to get a bigger slice.

So, they continue to give most artists, especially small/new artists next to nothing, exploiting them.

Nothing I said is innacurate IMO.

Quarterly earnings and projections for 2025: https://musically.com/2025/04/29/spotify-q1-2025-financial-results-reveal-it-now-has-268m-paid-subscribers/ (And as you said they already turned a profit last year, which was over a billion).

[–] TacoButtPlug@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Favorite spotify alternatives?

[–] Sunshine@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 month ago

Qobuz is a good one!

[–] gloomytabby@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Compact discs

[–] TacoButtPlug@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 month ago

I have cassette tapes

[–] zombiewarrior@techhub.social 3 points 1 month ago

@cm0002 enshittify

[–] FerretyFever0@fedia.io 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

At least it's German... I guess. Any alternatives that I can download onto my Xbox?

[–] Seasm0ke@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Idk about Xbox but deezer works in a browser

[–] FerretyFever0@fedia.io 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Similar interface? Any ads or anything (don't have premium so that's an upgrade)? Easy enough to use? Can I make a 6k song playlist?

[–] Seasm0ke@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Its pretty much a clone, but faster / more responsive. Good dynamic playlists. Free version has ads. https://www.deezer.com/en/offers/free

You can make and migrate your playlists, but you have to use their cross sign in api. I would prefer CSV or json export import myself.

Oh it also has lyrics in most apps. I actually like it better and wish I had signed up sooner instead of fucking with Pandora for so long

[–] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 month ago

All those musicians singing about love and peace are indirectly supporting the war. How fucked up is that?