The band left Spotify in June after its CEO Daniel Ek invested in AI military drone technology
After pulling their music from Spotify following CEO Daniel Ek’s investment in AI military drone technology, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard have successfully taken over the entire Top 25 of Bandcamp’s best-selling albums and are letting fans “name your price.”
While Bandcamp’s default pricing for albums is set at $9 (with tracks at $1.50), the company says artist are still able to set “pricing in a way that reflects your goals, your audience, and the value of your work.” The novel pricing move by King Gizzard opens up their digital catalog with a no minimum payment, making their music more accessible than ever.
Earlier this summer, the Aussie band began to remove dozens of albums from Spotify following the announcement that Ek’s investment firm, Prima Materia, helmed a 600 million euro fundraising round for Helsing, a defense technology startup developing AI drones. Simply writing “fuck Spotify” while promoting a new demo collection at the time, King Gizzard later explained their decision in an Instagram Story.
“Hello friends… A PSA to those unaware: Spotify CEO Daniel Ek invests millions in AI military drone technology… We just removed our music from the platform… Can we put pressure on these Dr. Evil tech bros to do better?… Join us on another platform,” the band’s statement read.
Along with King Gizzard, other prominent artists including Deerhoof, Xiu Xiu, Hotline TNT, the Mynabirds, Kadhja Bonet, and WU LYF have since left the platform.
“We’ve been saying ‘f— Spotify’ for years. In our circle of musicians, that’s what people say all the time for well-documented reasons,” King Gizzard’s Stu Mackenzie previously told the Los Angeles Times. “I don’t consider myself an activist, but this feels like a decision staying true to ourselves. We saw other bands we admire leaving, and we realized we don’t want our music to be there right now.”