| Dear Grazillians!
Cle Pecher on the current Spotify boycott by various artists
According to press releases from June 17th, Spotify founder Daniel Ek is investing 600 million Euro in a German defense company that manufactures AI-controlled drones:
https://www.faz.net/aktuell/wirtschaft/unternehmen/ek-investiert-neue-millionen-in-helsing-der-spotify-chef-und-das-ruestungs-start-up-110541857.html
With reference to this, numerous artists have now taken their catalogs from Spotify in protest and have announced this, sometimes theatrically, via platforms such as Instagram. The general line of argument is “Spotify pays the artists very poorly and prefers to invest the profits in the arms industry instead of paying the artists fairly.”
I find the irony behind this amusing that many artists have now suddenly discovered their inner anti-capitalist revolutionary and have to stage it publicly with “That’s enough!”.
It has been known for years that Spotify is the streaming platform that pays all artists the worst, has no problem with right-wing extremist podcasts and that CEO Daniel Ek is an ultra-capitalist, misanthropic douchebag.
How do these artists think the tech-bro billionaires get their billions? Through charity, philanthropy and solidarity? Or, as in the case of Daniel Ek, perhaps through a flair for good music? Not really.
When I left the Meta platforms this January – without any staging on those platforms – exactly 2 grazil artists followed me on Bluesky and 0 on Mastodon. I returned to Instagram because that’s the platform where 99% of grazil’s music life takes place. I had to grudgingly acknowledge that. Meta on which platforms the anti-Spotify revolution is now taking place earns billions and billions from private user data and their AI sucker. They pay the artists nothing and, just like Apple, Spotify and other right-wing tech bro-billionaires with fragile masculinity, invest huge sums in the arms industry.
In the example of Meta in AR helmets for US soldiers:
https://militaeraktuell.at/meta-arbeitet-mit-anduril-im-defence-bereich/
Or Apple and Google:
https://the-decoder.de/ki-fuer-das-militaer-apple-machts-wie-google/
So: when are you going to theatrically leave Youtube Music, Apple Music and all Meta platforms in protest?
Anyway, here’s this week’s news:
– grazil FM: Dark Days Ahead Booking
– New: grazil Distribution! Launch with GZD01 Greh Tapes and GZD02 Violet Bloom Tapes
– Mighty Maggots News |
