Other artists - some as big as Taylor Swift and Neil Young - have previously taken their music off the music streaming behemoth, only to return to it later.

Swift said, " I'm not willing to contribute my life's work to an experiment that I don't feel fairly compensates the writers, producers, artists, and creators of this music." Until she was. For money.

Young quit the platform over their decision to host Joe Rogan, a known Covid-sceptic: "I realized I could not continue to support SPOTIFY¡¯s life threatening misinformation to the music loving public," he said in a statement. Just two years later, he too had returned, now saying that Apple and iTunes were no better, as they, too had begun hosting Logan's show: ¡°Spotify, the #1 streaming of low res music in the world ¨C Spotify where you get less quality than we made, will now be home of my music again.¡± Also, money.

Young will, presumably, be happier now that Spotify supports Hi-Res audio (even if naysayers will insist on pointing out that it's only just hi-res.)

Nonetheless, artists have been quitting the platform left, right and centre. The complaints about streaming royalties haven't gone away and Rogan still earns crazy money for being long-form stupid and wilfully fascist-adjacent but this exodus stems from Spotify CEO Daniel Ek¡¯s recent investments into AI military defence company Helsing. Ek is now the Chairman of Helsing; Prima Materials has raised over $700 million for the company; and Helsing¡¯s focus on defense software had expanded to manufacturing drones, aircraft, and submarines. Ek is... unconcerned at the criticism: ¡°I¡¯m sure people will criticise it and that¡¯s OK. Personally, I¡¯m not concerned about it. I focus more on doing what I think is right and I am 100 per cent convinced that this is the right thing for Europe.¡±

Others, however, noting that steaming (famously) doesn't actually earn them all that much anyway, finally cut the link:

"Greg Saunier already had reasons to be wary of Spotify. The founder of the acclaimed Bay Area band Deerhoof was well acquainted with the service¡¯s meager payouts to artists and songwriters, often estimated around $3 per thousand streams. He was unnerved by the service¡¯s splashy pivots into AI and podcasting, where right-wing, conspiracy-peddling hosts like Joe Rogan got multimillion-dollar contracts while working musicians struggled.

But Saunier hit his breaking point in June, when Spotify¡¯s Chief Executive Daniel Ek announced that he¡¯d led a funding round of nearly $700 million (through his personal investment firm, Prima Materia) into the European defense firm Helsing. That company, which Ek now chairs, specializes in AI software integrated into fighter aircraft like its HX-2 AI Strike Drone. ¡°Helsing is uniquely positioned with its AI leadership to deliver these critical capabilities in all-domain defence innovation,¡± Ek said in a statement about the funding round.

In response, Deerhoof pulled its catalog from Spotify. ¡°Every time someone listens to our music on Spotify, does that mean another dollar siphoned off to make all that we¡¯ve seen in Gaza more frequent and profitable?¡± Saunier said."

At least one band, prolific genre-blending psych-rockers King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, has followed up by making their entire, and extensive, back catalogue at "name your price" on Bandcamp (a platform not entirely without issues but comparative saints).

If you are still on Spotify and the atrocious royalties (including demonetising entirely the streams of music from artists with fewer than 1000 monthly listeners), the playlists filled with ¡°fake¡± artists created by companies with contracts with Spotify and the platforming and promotion of AI-generated music havent convinced you to quit, perhaps King Gizzard's statement can convince you:

¡°Hello friends¡­ A PSA to those unaware: Spotify CEO Daniel Ek invests millions in AI military drone technology¡­ We just removed our music from the platform¡­ Can we put pressure on these Dr. Evil tech bros to do better?¡­ Join us on another platform.¡±