Is it right to use music to make bombs?
I'm comfortable with music streaming. It's here to stay now, we've gone too far. In fact we've gone very far. When you consider that illegal downloading from the likes of Limewire and Napster began in the early 2000's, there's now a generation of people who don't know another way.
But things have moved on and recently they moved in a direction I'm really not comfortable with.
What's wrong with streaming?
Where streaming services have got things wrong is the way they compensate artists for the music they profit from. Without the music there is no streaming, yet Spotify for example pay $0.005p per stream. An artist needs 6,000 streams to earn £30, the average price of a vinyl album.
However the money doesn't start rolling in (or dribbling in) until that artist has amassed a minimum of 1000 plays within 12 months AND each stream needs to be over 30 seconds long.
So as much as I'm comfortable with the idea of streaming music, I am against musicians, producers and songwriters being paid. With music now so easily available most people don't feel the need to pay for vinyl or CD or downloads anymore. It's easy to assume that by streaming their music, artists still earn good money.
So why have I quit Spotify now?
Despite the whole unfair payment system I'm a happy streamer and will continue to be. I'm also a music buyer. I still pay for vinyl, CDs and see a lot of live music. So the artists I really love get my full support. However, in the past few months a few things have happened that have force me to rethink where I spend my monthly subscription.
1. Velvet Sundown
This band emerged from nowhere in June 2025. Their biog on Spotify describes them as a mix of 70's psychedelic alt-rock with modern indie structures. I'm not going to lie, they sound great. Which is the worrying part.
Many media outlets and experts are claiming that Velvet Sundown aren't the 70's loving indie kids we thought they were. They are, in fact, an AI generated band. I'll admit, the music and in particular the lyrics do sound a little fishy but on the surface it's not easy to tell.
I checked them out on Instagram and was presented with a bunch of images that are quite clearly generated by AI. So it would appear they aren't as real as Spotify (and others) would have you believe. But streaming platforms are awash with AI generated music now, so what's the big issue with the Velvets?
The "band" released two albums in June 2025. As of today (3rd July) they have amassed 751,000 monthly listens and are followed by over 20,000 'people'. This has been partly fuelled by Spotify's algorithm pushing them hard on curated playlists but also partly fuelled by the media attention they're getting for all the wrong reasons. It is more than a little fishy though that they only have around 1,000 followers on Instagram if they are that popular.
They're on other streaming platforms too but Deezer, for example are actually calling them out as AI. Spotify, on the other hand are not. In fact there's no policy to point out if any music is real or AI generated.
I'll eat my hat if they show up at Glastonbury next year. Although I think my hat will be safe.
2. Helsing
This for me is the straw that broke the camels back. The whole AI thing makes me twitchy enough but when I discovered what Spotify's billionaire CEO Daniel Ek is doing with all his 'hard earned' profits I made my way swiftly to the unsubscribe button.
Helsing are a tech company from Berlin. They build military hardware driven by AI. In a nutshell, bombs controlled by AI. Yes, when I heard that I thought of the Terminator movie too.
Daniel Ek sits on their board and is throwing money at them. £600 million in June 2025 alone apparently. That's £600 million earned from the profits he makes providing a platform where artists can share their music. Does that sound a little like using art to fund war to you?
All this while real artists on Spotify get paid £0.005 per stream on his platform. If Daniel Ek was pumping his profits into the arts, I'd be a much happier customer, but he's not and that does not sit right with me.
Nor does it sit right with a lot of other people. Artists and users alike are starting to vote with their feet. Me included (see more here).
What's the answer?
For me, and many others, the answer is to unsubscribe. Music has been my life for all of my life.
I bought my first single at 7 years old, was working in a record shop by 15. I've presented breakfast radio for one of the largest networks in the UK and now make films for and about musicians. Supporting music has been and will continue to be my life. Supporting war will never be a part of my life.
I'm happy to announce though that we don't need to stop streaming. Platforms like Deezer and Tidal are great alternatives. They flag any AI content, they don't fund warfare (to my knowledge). In fact they stream music at a higher quality than Spotify and migrating all your playlists to them takes seconds to do.
For me it's a no brainer. So will you be leaving Spotify?
