Deerhoof didn’t want to fund ‘AI battle tech’ — so it ditched Spotify

On Monday, the long independent rock band Deerhooof issued an advertisement: She was withdrawing her music from Spotify.

The motivation was the founder of Spotify the latest investment of Daniel Ike in Heling, the German defense group that makes artificial intelligence and drones. Helsing collected 600 million euros In its latest funding round, which was led by the investment capital company in EK. “Heling is benefiting from the increase in investment in the defense groups, as the states of the very charged geopolitical environment around the world raises the increase in military spending and war in Ukraine leading to a rethinking of the battlefield technology,” Financial times Books on investment. EK described the investment as “double down”; that it It was previously made the first investment in Prima Materia in Helsing.

This did not sit correctly with Deerhoof members, who did not like Spotify much to start with it. The broadcasting platform was criticized by the artists for not paying enough, as well as for its practices around it “Ghost Artists” and the discovery situation. I contacted Greg Saunier, the Drams player in Deerhoof, to talk about how to support the broadcasting efforts, the amount of money collected from Spotify, and where they drew the moral line.

This interview has been intensified and edited for clarity.

Let’s start with how to make decisions. Your statement reads that you saw that Daniel Eye was using his money in Spotify to invest in artificial intelligence, and relied on waring war. I think this indicates EK investments in Helsing. Can you give me a picture of how this decision after I heard the news?

We were on a small rented bus, on a tour in the northeast, so I think we were just making chickens in the car. I was like, “Hey, did you see, comrades, this last title?” I think it took the four members of Deerhoof, maybe two minutes to make a decision.

Ed Rodriguez, our guitar player, took a quick look at our Spotify numbers. How much do each of us actually be on Spotify? As far as direct income, it was a small thing, like $ 1,000 a year or something like that.

So this is our braid. We were essentially waiting for at least five years for a moment. Everyone actually hates Spotify – everyone you talk to, whether they are musicians or whether they are listening. Thus we were hoping that someone would organize a movement. We will be the first to subscribe. But this did not happen in particular. Thus, just because of our ability to sleep at night, as you know – regardless of whether it creates any movement, regardless of whether Spotify itself is interested – we are only for our mental health we do not want our music, especially our success in music, AI Battle Tech.

We have all seen the results of what AI Battle Tech, as you know, make decisions of artificial intelligence, target artificial intelligence, face recognition, and artificial intelligence systems that were developed to overcome the lists of addresses in which people who have been called suspiciously, will automatically limit a residential building. [What’s happening in] Gaza gives everyone a taste for the future that Daniel Ike tries to achieve other regions of the world as well.

So yes, the band’s decision was very easy and fast.

There seems to be Khawan here. One of them is objections to Spotify, and the other is objections to artificial intelligence, so I will take them separately. How did you first join Spotify? You are present before moving to digital music, and I am sure you remember the NAPSter era, so I am curious about how this affects your jobs.

I really don’t remember joining it. Maybe we were on [record label] Polyvinyl at the time, it was simply one of several ways to flow music.

I think Napster is linked to Spotify’s history. Because, as you know, Spotfi started in Sweden. Sweden was also famous at the time for being the main axis of the Pirate Bay. But even download music for free, as with NAPSter, is – downloads are not flows. It is a different way to consume music. While Napster was happening, people had musical groups. This is what I do. Buy MP3S, often from Bandcamp or classic music from iTunes. None of Deerhoof members got a Spotify account because no of us liked to broadcast – he was never discovered for us.

The narration that we can all agree is the case with Spotify is that it seems a little suspicious when it started. The snowball has risen completely in terms of the amount of hatred, the amount of Eyerolls, and not only a gradual increase in public awareness of the injustice of their payment system. It is also that Daniel Eyk is the type of few – and there are many people who come to the headlines at the present time – which seems to have almost some psychological coercion to put his foot in his mouth and manufacture newspaper headlines by saying incredibly stupid things that inspire the anger of musicians and music lovers. It is just this kind of very hateful. Not all billionaires are like this. Some maintain their greed, hidden behind a type of secrecy or a type of decoration. Then you get Elon Musks, Daniel Eks and Donald Trumps, who are likely similar, publicly, publicly as a caricature as possible.

In our intestine, we felt that our success was the financing of global genocide, perhaps one step is very far. This is too much. We do not. We are not alongside the billionaire that gets their goal. It seems as if they were forced to take a side. Perhaps we had faltered for a longer period, just a kind of waiting in the background to see if someone else had taken a step. But this was too much. I can’t deal with that. There is no way in the world I will say, “Hey, everyone, listen to our music!” While at the same time knowing the meaning of this.

Do you have a tip for the bands that want to remove their work from Spotify? I mentioned the desire to be part of the movement. If you come across this movement, what should people do?

I mean, I just did Instagram post. I thought a few hundred of our followers may see it. I didn’t expect this to be actually part of a story that could be built into a movement.

I suddenly feel a lot of responsibility towards people. It is like any form of rejection, that is, a form of protest, that is, a form of civil disobedience, that is, a form of strike, boycott. What we are doing is the strike in the first place – it is not really, because we do not aim to return, but it is like a strike. We were musicians, workers are used as their taste for their advertising company. In any of these popular situations, the more people who do so, the more effective.

Many of my friends and colleagues in music have already told me, “Well, I can’t really leave Spotify.” I like, I am not judging you at all. I understand the situation. It was easy for us because we achieve most of our tour of wandering. But this is a distinguished position. Not looking at someone who does not feel that his ability to eat and pay the rent will be negatively affected by leaving Spotify to the point that they cannot do it.

At the same time, if many people do it, what happens is, Spotify is going on the myspace road. As you know, it is no longer great. It is not a modern thing that is forced to use. This is the ultimate goal, to make it very stupid and unpopular and such laughter so that no one wants to use it.

I want to talk a little about artificial intelligence now. I issued the advertisement on Instagram, and Meta is developing artificial intelligence, and last year, I agree to use it by the US military. So what is the difficult line for you?

I fully feel the same about Meta or Instagram as I do about Spotify that we hope for a collective split. We hope for a mass strike, a collective boycott, or just a collective refusal to use it anymore, and we will be the first to go.

But of course, there is a gray area. We do not make the dollar directly from Instagram, but Instagram helps us in our ability to achieve income from other sources, such as ticket sales and records. Some inspiration, as you know, are inspired by boycott movements all over the world. I saw Cesar Chavez speaking once in the late eighties. I remember that people were asking, “Why do you focus on grapes? Why do you boycott organic grapes while there are apples covered with pests that you don’t even talk about?” and [Chavez] Like, “it is just a strategy. It is related to the targeted procedures.” You see a lot of the same thing happens with BDS [Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions]Especially in the past two years. There are many institutions, companies and individuals who have relationships either [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu, the Israeli government, or the Israeli defense army [Israel Defense Force]But we will target these specific things so that it can focus on public awareness. In a media environment that is permanently saturated, it is strategic sometimes focusing the individual’s efforts on a specific entity at one time, or not exaggerating it.

We also enjoy the consent of Mark Zuckerberg. Its idol, hobby and delusions for what he would like to do with millions of dollars is a little different, perhaps, from Daniel Ike, but it was clear that it was clear, at least since the analytical Cambridge and the first elections of Trump, that he wants to engage in politics. So as not to mention his flirtation with perhaps nominated for the presidency. It is clear that he understands and gets an excitement from the fact that he is already able to control global events to some extent through what he chooses for censorship or prohibiting shadow or what he chooses to teach his algorithms to promote the highest summary of any specific person.

Yes, Deerhoof would like to become instagram as well. I imagine that Instagram will go on the way of any other platforms that do nothing or create anything. What they create is the feeling of lonely, and they create what they need. It creates longing, or it creates distraction. They take you away from your own thoughts and feelings and blocked the time of lethargy in which you may have your own thoughts or feelings or create something, such as writing a song. I don’t think Instagram is compatible with long -term survival.

There is a generation – probably for two generations now – grow up knowing nothing but free music, and they may feel their human right. In fact, I can sympathize with someone who says: “I think I have to have free music,” and in this case I would like to say, “Wonderful, clear, if a person has the right to obtain free recorded music, then it must be nationalized. This should not be done for profit.” It is the same as we say about health care. It is the same as we say about housing. It is the same as we say about higher education.

It is wild to be a tour of a tour and be a friend of French musicians. They are like, “Oh, my salary is paid with taxes. In other words, The French population pushes me to be a musician. [Ed. note: In France, musicians can collect a special class of unemployment income called intermittents du spectacle.] It is like, stand, try to imagine that here, how much it would change everything.

Currently, people who create registered music do this for free, but any money changes her hands enter into Daniel E you pockets. He goes to the pockets of a person who uses to automate and manufacture mass killing. This is not a scenario that is likely to give most people a thumb if presented to them in this way. This is not the Spotify sales stadium but it should be because this is the reality, this is what you share.

You only have a new album coming out, Nabila and divine in ruin. Where can people find it?

You can find it in the registration store, you can find it on Bandcamp, and you can find it on our website, and you can find it on our website, then there are any number of other technical platforms that allow search fields through which you can write this. Or video platforms that will make it easy for you to hear.

Spotify is the only option as a result of BackRoom deals between the main stickers. This has made Spotify mandatory for everyone, regardless of whether youoncé. This does not mean that it is the only place to hear the recorded music. Just go anywhere – literally anywhere – another.