Australian psychedelic rock band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard has removed its entire discography from Spotify, accusing the company’s CEO Daniel Ek of funding military technology.
Australian psychedelic rock band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard has removed its entire discography from Spotify, accusing the company’s CEO Daniel Ek of funding military technology.
According to DOU, the band announced their boycott in an Instagram post: «Daniel Ek is pouring millions into developing AI drones for war. We just removed our music from the platform. Can we somehow pressure these Dr. Evil-style technobros to come to their senses?»
The musicians explained their decision as a protest against Ek’s investment in the defense startup Helsing, which develops drones based on artificial intelligence.
This is an investment through the Prima Materia fund, founded by Ekom in 2021. In 2025, the fund invested over 600 million euros in Helsing. This is a company that already supplies AI solutions to the armed forces of EU countries. The startup’s systems are actively used, in particular, in Ukraine.
King Gizzard not only removed their music from Spotify, but also urged fans to bypass the service: «Listen to us anywhere, but not there. You can even download pirated music.» At the same time, as listeners noticed, the band’s songs remained available on Yandex Music, a Russian streaming service associated with companies from the aggressor country.
UPD. After a wave of criticism on social media, Australian rock band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard responded to the announcement about the presence of their music on Yandex Music. On Instagram Stories, the musicians thanked for the message in private messages and stated:
«Thanks for reporting Yandex in our private messages. We have never posted and will never post music on that platform. It is posted there illegally. What a piece of shit.»
Thus, the band confirmed that they had no agreements with the Russian streaming service, and the music ended up there without their knowledge.
Other alternative artists, including Xiu Xiu and Deerhoof, have joined the boycott, accusing Spotify of inappropriately linking to the militarization of AI.
In response to the accusations, Daniel Ek did not deny his involvement in financing Helsing. In previous interviews, he stated:
«AI, mass, and autonomy are what are shaping the modern battlefield. And we cannot underestimate the impact of this on the war in Ukraine or any conflict in the future.»
He also emphasized that he is «100% confident» in the correctness of his position and is not afraid of public criticism from artists.
The investment activities of tech giants, particularly in military startups, are becoming increasingly public and are often causing ethical conflicts with the creative community. While some musicians are boycotting platforms, others are choosing to ignore the political context, leaving their music even on the services of the aggressor country.
Recall that dev.ua also published an article about how the Turkish antimonopoly service is investigating Spotify’s activities: officials accuse the platform not only of violating competition rules, but also of distributing content that allegedly insults the wife of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
