SEPTEMBER 2025: For the foreseeable future, Prairie Clamor and Will Sings Songs recordings will not be available on Spotify. And y’know what, you might want to jump ship from Spotify as well. Why? Spotify CEO Daniel Ek’s massive investments in military AI technology, not to mention Spotify’s exploitative treatment of artists.
Spotify Subscriptions Fund Military AI Tech
As of June 2025, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek has invested over $800,000,000 USD (€100 million in 2021 and €600 million more this year) in Helsing, a company that develops AI military technology. This is disgusting. I am a children’s musician. A future in which war is enabled and carried out by AI technology is not the future that our children deserve. I refuse to be a part of a system that enables or supports such a dystopian future.To be waaaaay more frank than a conflict averse guy like myself pretty much ever is: if you use Spotify, you are enabling a system that allows billionaires to exploit artists in order to facilitate AI-assisted k*lling. Your monthly $12 is not going into the pockets of your favorite independent musicians. It is going into the hands of Daniel Ek and sickening AI military tech companies. It feels so gross to type that, but it’s true.
And so, I urge you to stop using Spotify. Cancel that subscription, friend! There are plenty of other options to obtain and listen to music. My favorite is Bandcamp, where you can stream all Prairie Clamor and Will Sings Songs albums indefinitely for free, and pay for them if you want. There are also plenty of other streaming services. I don’t know if any are completely ethically sound either, but, hey, at least the money won’t be going to Daniel Ek. And yes, you can keep your playlists, there are ways to transfer them over. Do a google search for some reddit threads, you’ll figure it out. (Side note that Prairie Clamor and Will Sings Songs are not available via Amazon music, nor will they ever be.)
If you ask me, that should be reason enough to leave Spotify. But wait! There’s more! Not only does Spotify fund AI Military technology, Spotify exploits artists to do so.
Streaming Minimums and Paltry Payouts
No artist on Spotify gets paid until one of their songs accrues more than 1,000 streams in a 12 month period. Once breaking that threshold, artists are given fractions of a penny per stream. In the seven years that my music has been hosted on Spotify, I have received less than $50 dollars in royalties.Now I know what you might be thinking: “But Will, you are an obscure local musician with a teensy following! You probably don’t have many listeners anyway, so it’s not like you’re entitled to big payouts! Stop the whining!”
Sure. Prairie Clamor and Will Sings Songs are not the biggest, hottest bands on the national music scene. And yet, I’ve received thousands (!) of dollars in royalty payments for my music being played on traditional and satellite radio stations. (Yes, that much from radio! In the 21st century!) Likewise, I’ve been lucky to do similar numbers through digital downloads and CD sales via Bandcamp. And yet… I’ve made less than 50 bucks from Spotify, where, presumably, a majority of listeners find my music. Oof.
Spotify… Worse than Piracy?
Now I know what you might be thinking: “But Will! Why not stay on Spotify anyway? 21st century listeners probably won’t pay for your music outside of Spotify… They’d probably just pirate it!”Music piracy is, of course, illegal, and I don’t encourage it. But to independent artists like myself, accessing our music via Spotify is practically worse than pirating it. Don’t believe me? How ‘bout an example:
Let’s say I somehow pirate an MP3 copy of my brother Peter’s 2025 album ...Feelings of the Bygone Sublime, Illuminate My Night. The end result? I get to enjoy the album, but Peter doesn’t get paid. Not great for Peter.
But what about the alternative? Let’s say I pay $12 a month for a Spotify subscription, which I then use to listen to ...Feelings of the Bygone Sublime, Illuminate My Night. The end result? I get to enjoy the album, but Peter still doesn’t get paid. But wait? Didn’t I pay good money to access Peter’s album via Spotify? Shouldn’t he get some of that sweet, sweet cash? Well, it looks like Peter’s album hasn’t gotten more than 1,000 streams in the last 12 months, so according to Spotify’s draconian payout rules, he doesn’t get a penny of my $12. And even if he did break 1,000 streams, Peter’s royalty payments would be, of course, fractions of a penny per stream. So where’d my $12 go? Simple! Into the pockets of corporate-owned major labels and evil billionaires like Daniel Ek. Not great for Peter and not great for anyone else either. For more details on Spotify’s opaque deals with major labels, read Liz Pelly’s illuminating 2025 book Mood Machine.
So which is worse? Pirating music, resulting in an unpaid artist? Or handing over hard-earned money to corporations and billionaires, also resulting in an unpaid artist? How about some other options?
Artists Don’t Need Spotify
Now I know what you might be thinking: “But Will! Spotify is such a great platform for music discovery! Perhaps one of your songs will land on a big editorial playlist, leading to thousands of new fans! Or, even better, maybe ‘the algorithm’ will pick up one of your songs, start recommending it to millions of listeners, leading to an explosion in the size of your audience! I mean, Will, just think about it… no one will be able to find your music without Spotify!”Wrong. The belief that we artists “need” Spotify to succeed is exactly what Ek wants; editorial playlists (playlists compiled and promoted by Spotify staff) are one of several carrots dangled in front of artists in order to make us believe this falsity. The chances of landing on an editorial playlist are getting slimmer and slimmer all the time anyway. Spotify has been continually cutting editorial staff and instead pushing AI-generated playlists loaded with slop made by fake in-house “artists.” Yes, this is actually happening.
Spotify doesn’t want you to discover music yourself anyway, it wants you to sit back and let the algorithm do the work. Yet Spotify’s algorithm increasingly pushes listeners (and artists!) to certain types of music. Increasingly, this is basically the 2025 equivalent of muzak — bland, inoffensive, wallpapery music meant for background listening. And yes, plenty of it is being AI generated. Unsurprisingly, this has led to the same-ification of a lot of new music being recommended by Spotify. Gross! Extra bad for us artists making anything other than wallpapery chill beats. Actually, wait, it’s also bad for people making wallpapery chill beats.
And dang, it just keeps going on and on. Spotify’s new user agreement also allows it to “create derivative works from” artists’ music; they’re training their AI on our music. But have no fear! Afraid of your music getting lost in the AI slop pool? Spotify has rolled out “Discovery Mode” where artists receive even lower royalty payments in exchange for more “exposure” on the platform. Pay-to-play, payola, whatever you want to call it, this is pure insult. As if exploiting us for our music alone wasn’t enough, they want us to pay them to do it. Eff that! You’ll never see a cent from me, Ek!
In It for the Money?
Now I know what you might be thinking: “You know Will, all this talk of money… artists shouldn’t care about money. You should be creating music for its own sake — not for money. You should be happy that anyone at all is interested in listening to your music.”Devaluation of music (and art in general) is the result of services like Spotify exploiting hardworking artists. Music is not a disposable digital commodity. No way! It’s the greatest frickin’ art form and intangible cultural heritage humankind has ever freaking produced! (In my opinion ;)) All musicians, professional or not, deserve to be compensated for their labor. Art jobs are real jobs. If you believe that real artists deserve to be paid fairly for their art and if you don’t want your hard-earned dollars to be funneled into hellish AI military technology, then make the simple choice of leaving Spotify and never returning. A better future is possible.