Xiu Xiu, a post-punk and synth-pop band, chose to speak out on their stance regarding Spotify's recent update, stating they are attempting to remove all of their music from Spotify's platform. Just yesterday, on their Instagram, the trio announced that they are "currently working to take all of our music off of garbage hole violent armageddon portal Spotify". The message also urged fans to cancel their subscriptions with the platform.
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Amid global conflicts like the Ukraine war and the Israel-Gaza conflict, defense technology has become popular among investors, including Spotify CEO Daniel Ek. In June, Ek decided to financially support Helsing, a military defense startup that works on the development of AI drones.
In a recent interview with Anthony Fantano, frontman Jamie Stewart discussed the band's decision to remove their entire catalog from Spotify. "They're using money that they have stolen from almost every band in the entire world, to murder people, to make more money." Stewart said that the labels the band worked with had previously given them a lot of "pushback" when it came to standing up against the dominant player in the music streaming industry. However, when it came to "a literal battle," as Stewart said, and not just a "streaming battle," this was something that the labels and the band just weren't willing to accept.
It's a Lot Harder To Remove a Discography Than You Would Think
Xiu Xiu is currently signed to several labels, including Polyvinyl, Kill Rock Stars, and Graveface, as well as a few small, lesser-known ones. Being signed to multiple places can make it challenging to make such a significant change to a band's discography, especially one with as extensive a discography as Xiu Xiu's. Stewart admitted that "I think it's not gonna be possible for us to get some of the smaller records off. I don't even know who even owns some of them or how some of them got there." Some of the labels under which the records are categorized no longer exist, according to Stewart, and he "doesn't even know who he would talk to about it."
" data-instgrm-version="14" style="background:#FFF;border:0;border-radius:3px;margin: 1px;max-width:540px;min-width:326px;padding:0;width:99.375%;width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px);width:calc(100% - 2px)">Another indie band, Deerhoof, with whom Xiu Xiu has collaborated and toured with back in 2010, also released a statement regarding their decision to remove Deerhoof's discography from Spotify. "We don't want our music killing people. We don't want our success being tied to AI battle tech," the statement read. Both bands have been on the music scene for several decades, so removing their music from the platform is not an easy financial decision. "To tell you the truth, we've made a not insignificant amount of money from Spotify," Stewart admitted to Fantano, "I'm not gonna be houseless because of it, but we're losing a fair amount of money."
It will be interesting to see, as time progresses, whether other bands will follow Xiu Xiu's lead with Spotify or choose to stay the course. When asked if he thought there might be some kind of movement against the corporation in the future with the indie scene, Stewart replied, "I genuinely hope so."
Photo by: Presley Ann/Getty Images for Spotify
