King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard Pull Catalog From Spotify Over Daniel Ek’s Investment in Defense Tech Company

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have announced they’re removing their music from Spotify. This decision was made public by the Australian rock group on Friday, and it appears to be due to Spotify’s CEO, Daniel Ek, investing in a defense industry company.

Hey pals, heads up! Spotify CEO Daniel Ek is putting millions into AI-controlled military drones. We’ve taken our tunes off the platform. Let’s push these tech tycoons to do better. Hop on board with us on another platform.

It’s quite possible that King Gizzard is talking about Helsing, the prominent German defense tech firm where Ek’s venture capital group, Prima Materia, recently invested a substantial $700 million. Notably, Ek holds the position of chairman at Helsing as well.

Band King Gizzard boasts an extensive collection of close to 30 albums, with approximately 1.5 million monthly listeners on Spotify at the time this article was written. Currently, only their 2022 EP titled “Satanic Slumber Party” remains available on the platform.

A representative for Spotify didn’t immediately respond to request for comment.

Over the past month, King Gizzard has become the most notable artist to remove their entire catalog from Spotify, following the revelation of Prima Materia’s investment. Deerhoof declared at the end of June that they would also be withdrawing their music, expressing concerns that “We don’t want our music contributing to harming people. We don’t want our achievements connected to AI war technology.

As a devotee, I’d express it like this: Yesterday, much like experimental rock band Xiu Xiu, I found myself voicing discontent with the streaming giant, Spotify. To me, it felt more like a chaotic, destructive vortex, an “Armageddon portal” that sucks in all music, reducing it to mere garbage.

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Certainly,

Spotify has encountered this situation before where artists have removed their music due to disagreements over contentious issues. Specifically, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell took down their entire catalogues in response to misleading vaccine information shared on Joe Rogan’s podcast. However, both artists returned their music to the platform last year.

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2025-07-26 02:55