this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2025
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Spotify, the world’s leading music streaming platform, is facing intense criticism and boycott calls following CEO Daniel Ek’s announcement of a €600m ($702m) investment in Helsing, a German defence startup specialising in AI-powered combat drones and military software.

The move, announced on 17 June, has sparked widespread outrage from musicians, activists and social media users who accuse Ek of funnelling profits from music streaming into the military industry.

Many have started calling on users to cancel their subscriptions to the service.

“Finally cancelling my Spotify subscription – why am I paying for a fuckass app that works worse than it did 10 years ago, while their CEO spends all my money on technofascist military fantasies?” said one user on X.

(page 2) 50 comments
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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

it will always be and has always been about money

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 day ago
[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Been thinking of booting them for a whilst. Just cancelled. Better late than never.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah - been talking about doing so for quite a long time, and then signing up to a Qobuz family plan, downloading all their apps, and cancelling everything Spotify has taken all of five minutes. Hardly even interrupted the album we were listening to via Chromecast. There's a lesson to be learned somewhere.

Qobuz' recommendations and albums-of-the-week actually look good, too. Like an actual music enthusiast has picked things out, rather than Spotify's slop.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

Same story here. I cancelled Spotify after the whole Trump thing and switched to Qobuz; the whole thing was pretty seamless. I've got to say, the increased quality is actually noticeable and, as you said, the curated selections actually seem to be, well, curated. Also, if you've got a load of playlists on Spotify you want to keep, Qobuz actually provides subscribers with free access to a migartion service that did a superb job.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

I’m doing my part!

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 day ago

Spotify CEO also donated millions to trump campaign.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago

Out of every company I would have never expected Spotify to be one of the ones to want that

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

There are lots of reasons to boycott Spotify and call out Ek for being a fascism enabler but this is not one. Helsing is a promising project that could give Europe the edge in the face of Russian imperialist aggression. If anything, we need more companies shaking up the crusty MIC. They also provide important military aid to Ukraine.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The Germans can surely be trusted with AI murder tech.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 day ago

“Said one user on X.”

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Reading this while listening to vinyl...best enjoyable music experience.

To hell with the enshitification of music streaming.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

We all know that scene in Robo Cop 2 is going to happen eventually.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 day ago

Always worth keeping in mind that these fuckers are selling snake oil to one another under the guise of national security.

This technology is dangerous not because it works as advertised but because it creates a vacuum of responsibility for when the very manual killing starts

Israel's Lavender AI is a great example of this in action. It doesn't work in any meaningful way. All it does is label casualties in a bombing run as "terrorists" after the fact.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It is possible to get off Spotify.

What you can't buy legitimately via other means you can use a Youtube-To-MP3 converter to rip and add the file to your music library.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (2 children)

You're saving an already low-quality stream into a lossy format. Just use Soulseek.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

Don't have high end audio equipment anyway, I can't tell the difference on 99% of songs.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

I somehow cannot wrap my head around soulseek, so I'm just torrenting like I always do 🏴‍☠️

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

I'm learning more and more everyday, that essentially all companies worldwide are evil. Because profit and money are what is most important to humans, I 100% want all of humanity to self-terminate and give this planet back to the few species that we didn't already wipe out! We are a nightmare species. I fear humans more than anything else in life. We are the enemy of this planet.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 day ago

Seeking profit above all else isn't human nature. Humans have lived and still live in societies that don't do this. The socioeconomic system that we find ourselves in currently in a large part of the world does put profit above all else. But this system is just one iteration of how we live. And even it has changed over time where it has gotten worse over the last 50 years. It too would change and likely be replaced by another in the long run. Many believe that would be some form of socialism. Or we could go largely extinct before we abandon it. A better world is possible though.

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Dude, you should have stopped using Spotify when they let Joe Rogan on their platform… or when they started hosting fake music.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 day ago

Or because they pay artist way less than any one else, while having lower quality audio.

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