Deradoorian is the latest artist to pull music from Spotify. The singer-songwriter and former Dirty Projectors member cited chief executive Daniel Ek’s weapons investments—the main motive for the recent exodus—and alluded to recent online content accusing the platform of expanding its music usage rights. Spotify clarified in a statement that Spotify for Artists terms have not changed, and said those terms do not govern artists’ music rights.
Many of Deradoorian’s albums have already been taken down from Spotify but, she noted, remain available to stream and buy elsewhere. Her statement begins, “Since Spotify came along, I have always felt skeptical and opposed to their platform. Because it became the norm, I felt like I had to just put up with it and take what I could get. Perhaps that was true more so in the nascent stages of my solo career, but it doesn’t feel that way now.” She added that Ek’s investment in the artificial-intelligence weapons contractor Helsing prompted her to dig into other issues around the platform, such as the way Spotify uses artists’ music. The “slow erosion,” she wrote, of “our perceived ownership over our music—and the way its profits were used—was now too egregious to ignore.” Deradoorian admitted she did not conduct intensive research but said, “We all know that Spotify practices bad business. So, I just made the choice to stop it.”
In an email, a Spotify spokesperson said: “You might be seeing some misinformation online about a ‘change’ to the Spotify for Artists’ Terms of Use. These claims are false.” The spokesperson clarified that confusion about music usage rights revolves around a phrase that appears prominently in its terms of use: “user content.” That refers not to artists’ music but to listener content: “things like listener-created playlist covers, podcast comments, and playlist titles,” according to the statement. Terms of use for listeners—not artists—were recently updated, the spokesperson added.
Last week, Massive Attack became the biggest artist yet to announce its departure from Spotify, primarily citing Ek’s investment in Helsing. They also shared a separate statement about joining No Music for Genocide, which calls for artists to geoblock their music in Israel. (Spotify for Artists has clarified that Helsing is not involved in Gaza.) The band joined an exodus that includes Hotline TNT, Young Widows, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, WU LYF, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Xiu Xiu, and Deerhoof.
For the avoidance of doubt, Deradoorian concludes her statement, “I do not support AI technology that’s built to spy on us, create weapons to kill us, and utilize psychological tactics to dumb us down to the point of not questioning our reality and devolving our neural connections. It’s important to employ your mental faculties and ability to question in these times and I am trying harder to do that more consistently.”