Australian rock band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard has removed almost all of its releases from Spotify. The reason was a disagreement with the investment activities of the service's co-founder Daniel Ek, whose Prima Materia fund invests in the defense company Helsing, which specializes in AI technologies in the defense industry and produces strike drones, several thousand of which have already been delivered to Ukraine. Pitchfork writes about this.
The band first hinted at a Spotify departure by posting the phrase "f*ck Spotify" while promoting a new demo available exclusively on Bandcamp. They later confirmed on Instagram that they had removed the music due to the platform's ties to military technology.
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard join Deerhoof and Xiu Xiu who have also announced their intention to leave Spotify for the same reasons. Unlike many artists, King Gizzard owns the rights to their music and releases it through their own labels, Flightless, KGLW, and (P)Doom, so they were able to quickly remove most of their releases.
By the way, the band did not remove its songs from Yandex Music.
The only remaining record on the platform is the collaborative EP Satanic Slumber Party, released through Joyful Noise Recordings. The label has stated that they will remove the release if the bands request it.
Prima Materia, founded by Daniel Ek, is an active investor in Helsing, a company developing military AI solutions. In 2025, the fund led another €600 million funding round for the company.