Deerhoof’s statement goes on to say, “AI battle tech is clearly emerging as the hot new big ticket item for the super-rich. It’s increasingly clear that the military and police exist primarily as the security detail for the billionaire class. The more of the killing you can get computers to do, the better your bottom line. Computerized targeting, computerized extermination, computerized destabilization for profit, successfully tested on the people of Gaza, also finally solves the perennial inconvenience to war-makers–It takes human compassion and morality out of the equation.”
Noting that Spotify “only pays a pittance anyway,” Deerhoof acknowledged they have the privilege of making this choice because their income is derived largely from touring. Rejecting the industry notion that musicians must constantly grow their audience, they write, “We aren’t capitalists, and don’t wish to take over the world. Especially if the price of ‘discoverability’ is letting oligarchs fill the globe with computerized weaponry, we’re going to pass on the supposed benefits.” Further, “Spotify is flushing itself down the toilet,” they argue. “Eventually artists will want to leave this already widely hated data-mining scam masquerading as a ‘music company.’ It’s creepy for users and crappy for artists. Music-making lasts forever but this or that digital get-rich-quick scheme is sure to become obsolete.”
Beyond the troubling ethical implications of Ek’s investments, AI has started to infiltrate Spotify in ways that undermine the platform. In the last week, the entirely AI-generated band “The Velvet Sundown” has gone viral as users reported that the app’s algorithm has pushed the fake group’s fake music onto playlists like Discover Weekly, per Stereogum. (“The Velvet Sundown don’t just play music—they conjure worlds,” reads the band’s bio, despite the fact that “they” don’t play music at all. The bio also features fake praise falsely attributed to Billboard.) Earlier this month, Grammy nominee Paul Bender raised the alarm that seemingly AI-generated songs were being uploaded without his permission to the Spotify page for his project The Sweet Enoughs. Apparently, it’s pretty easy to add a fake track to an artist’s page without any kind of authentication; Australia’s ABC News reports fake profiles with fake music have been added to the platform for artists like Madvillian, SOPHIE, and Brian Wilson. “It is so grim, so dystopian, and so Black Mirror that it’s beyond the pale,” Bender told the outlet.
In other words, there exist plenty of good reasons for artists to be critical about Spotify and AI. For Deerhoof, “The big picture is this: Our politico-economic system increasingly presents humanity with a hideous fait accompli: Buy from me, vote for me, consume my media, use my service. Yes, it means mass deportation, mass detainment, and mass extermination of those deemed unprofitable by a handful of rich white people living in enclaves protected by AI weaponry. But if you don’t, you cannot have a job. We think this dilemma is coming to a head soon, and we predict that most people aren’t going to take the billionaires’ side,” they write in their statement. “We aren’t sure exactly how soon the takedowns can happen, but it will be as soon as possible. We want to thank our various labels for their support on this tricky decision. The grunt work of pulling content off of Spotify is something they’re now tasked with, and they are sharing the financial hit. We know we are asking them to make a sacrifice, and it means a lot to us.”
