Massive Attack have joined the boycott of Spotify over CEO Daniel Ek’s investments in weapons company Helsing, which develops AI strike drones. The band simultaneously announced they had signed-up to No Music For Genocide, a new initiative via which hundreds of artists and labels are pledging to geo-block their music so that it is no longer available on any streaming platforms in Israel.
The band say, “in light of the (reported) significant investments by its CEO in a company producing military munition drones and AI technology integrated into fighter aircraft, Massive Attack have made a request to our label that our music be removed from the Spotify streaming service in all territories”.
“The economic burden” of Spotify’s business model “that has long been placed on artists”, they go on, “is now compounded by a moral and ethical burden, whereby the hard-earned money of fans and the creative endeavours of musicians ultimately funds lethal, dystopian technologies”.
Massive Attack join Deerhoof, Xiu Xiu, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard and a collective of Seattle-based artists in boycotting Spotify over Ek’s involvement in Helsing via his venture capital business Prima Materia. Although he’s been an investor in Helsing since 2021, Ek’s involvement ramped up earlier this year and he is now Chair of the weapons manufacturer.
Given the profile of Massive Attack, and the fact their catalogue is controlled by Universal Music, their involvement in the boycott was enough to get a response from Spotify. Well, almost.
It told The Guardian that “Spotify and Helsing are two totally separate companies”, which is stating the obvious and kind of irrelevant. But it did also insist that Helsing is not involved in the ongoing conflict in Gaza, and is in fact “focused on Europe defending itself in Ukraine”.
Helsing itself also issued a statement to the newspaper, saying, “Currently we see misinformation spreading that Helsing’s technology is deployed in war zones other than Ukraine. This is not correct. Our technology is deployed to European countries for deterrence and for defence against the Russian aggression in Ukraine only”.
Both Spotify and Helsing are presumably keen to stress that the defence company is not involved in the conflict in Gaza because Massive Attack bailing on the streaming service coincided with the launch of No Music For Genocide. More than 400 artists and labels have signed up to that scheme, pledging to tell their distributors to exclude Israel when delivering their music to all streaming services.
A statement on a website set up as part of that initiative says participating artists and labels “have geo-blocked and removed their music” from Israel in response to the country’s “genocide in Gaza”, “ethnic cleansing of the Occupied West Bank” and “apartheid within Israel”.
The statement goes on to criticise the music industry, comparing its response to the ongoing conflict in Gaza with what happened when Russia launched its full invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
“Within a few months of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, every major label either unilaterally removed their entire catalogue from Russia or closed operations entirely, implicitly or explicitly condemning Putin’s actions while donating to Ukraine”, it notes.
But “no such measures have been taken against Israel, or in support of Palestine, after decades of illegal occupation and 23 months into Israel’s accelerated genocide”. This initiative, it says, is open to all artists and labels, and “we hope it leads to additional efforts against the music industry’s complicity”.
Other artists involved in No Music For Genocide include Amyl And The Sniffers, Ben Howard, David Holmes, Deerhoof, Efterklang, Enter Shikari, Faye Webster, Fontaines DC, Kneecap, Mogwai, Rina Sawayama, Saul Williams, Sega Bodega, Soccer Mommy, Wu-Lu and Young Fathers.
Participating labels include Arbutus Records, Black Acre Records, Double Dare, Éditions Appærent, LoveTent, Ruination Records, Sure Thing Voluminous Arts and Xquisite Releases.