"Screw Spotify!" A handful of artists say goodbye to the platform because of guns.

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard is an Australian psychedelic rock band with dozens of albums and songs that will no longer be available on Spotify . The prolific Australian rock band quietly removed almost their entire catalog from the streaming platform. They decided to do so, and that's it.

The group announced it with a "screw Spotify!" post on their Instagram account while promoting a new collection of demos exclusive to Bandcamp . This surprised their followers, who applauded the decision but also demanded explanations. These explanations came later and had little to do with a business conflict but rather an ethical one, something similar to what happened to groups like Deerhoof and Xiu Xiu .

The explanation came later also via Instagram: King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard oppose the military investments made by Spotify co-founder and CEO Daniel Ek to the military defense company, Helsing.

"Hello friends:

A public service announcement for those who don't know: Spotify CEO Daniel Ek is investing millions in AI-powered military drone technology.

We just removed our music from the platform.

Can we pressure these tech brothers of Dr. Evil to do better?

Join us on another platform."

With this message, the Australian band joined other artists who have also condemned Spotify . In early July, the American band Deerhoof announced its intention to leave Spotify due to Daniel Ek 's $ 700 million investment in a military technology company using artificial intelligence. According to the group, this situation created an ethical conflict, as they do not want their music linked to projects related to military technology or contributing to violence.

Deerhoof also criticized the growing presence of AI-generated music on platforms and questioned Spotify's business model, which they consider harmful to artists and users. Their position was clear: "We don't want our music to kill people." They called Spotify a "data mining scam."

Xiu Xiu , the Californian industrial punk and experimental pop band made up of Jamie Stewart, Angela Seo and David Kendrick , also said goodbye to Spotify, following in the footsteps of Deerhoof. The reason, also ethical, was in protest against Ek's multi-million dollar investment in a German artificial intelligence company focused on the military sector.

"We are currently working to remove all of our music from the hellish portal of trash and violent apocalypse that is Spotify. It's taking longer than expected due to procedural complications, but it will be completed soon. Thank you for your support and patience. For all the reasons you already know, please cancel your Spotify subscription," Xiu Xiu stated.

Furthermore, beyond its CEO's investment in developing artificial intelligence weapons, artists are boycotting the music platform for barely paying creators a fair share of the music they upload. According to various reports, Spotify pays its artists between $0.003 and $0.005 per stream, which, unlike competitors like Tidal, Anghami, and Apple Music, is low.

Last March, it was Snoop Dogg who definitively left Spotify. However, for reasons more economic than ethical. As he explained, he was leaving the platform after reaching one billion streams on it and receiving a payment of less than $45,000 , a figure he considered ridiculous. "I don't want to have anything to do with Spotify, now I'm only on Tune.FM," he declared. Curiously, he didn't opt for Tidal or Apple Music, but for Tune.FM , a blockchain- based streaming service. That is, it offers instant payments in cryptocurrencies.