(Special Report)

Written by: Jake Beach  

Spotify is losing artists. And this time, it feels different. At least 19 musicians and bands have pulled their music from the platform in 2025, and unlike past boycotts that fizzled out with eventual returns, this one seems to be sticking. Independent and mid-tier artists aren’t just frustrated anymore; they’re walking away, and they’re not looking back.

It started in June 2025, when word got out that Spotify CEO Daniel Ek had dropped around $700 million into Helsing, a German defence tech company that builds AI-powered military systems. Ek isn’t just an investor; he chairs the company.

Indie rock band Deerhoof was one of the first to leave. “We don’t want our music killing people,” they said. “We don’t want our success to be tied to AI battle tech.” Within weeks, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Xiu Xiu, and Hotline TNT did the same. By September, the exodus included Saetia, Swing Kids, Massive Attack, Young Widows, The Mynabirds, WU LYF, and Kadhja Bonet. Most pointed fans toward Bandcamp, Tidal, and Apple Music instead.

But Ek’s defense investment was just the breaking point. Artists have been fed up with Spotify for years. The platform’s royalty system pays out based on total streams across the entire service, which means most musicians get a few bucks per thousand plays, if that. It’s not a living. It’s barely pocket change.

Jamie Stewart from Xiu Xiu put it bluntly in an NPR interview: “The financial aspect of it is a joke. It has not done anything good for bands. It has done good things for itself.”

Things got worse. In 2024, Spotify introduced a rule: tracks need at least 1,000 streams to earn anything. For smaller, niche artists, that basically wiped out their royalties. Around the same time, the company started bundling audiobooks into premium subscriptions, which cut into what songwriters and composers were already making.

It’s not just artists who are unhappy. Listeners are getting uneasy, too. In October, Spotify ran recruitment ads for ICE on its free tier. When people complained, the company shrugged and said the ads didn’t break any rules. For many users, that was proof: Spotify will monetize pretty much anything.

Then there’s the AI problem. Spotify says it removed 75 million spam tracks between 2024 and 2025, but AI-generated music is still everywhere on the platform. Some of it’s even fraudulent, uploaded under real artists’ names. Folk singer Emily Portman found two fake albums mimicking her voice on her own artist page. They stayed up for weeks, even after she complained repeatedly.

Spotify doesn’t label AI-generated tracks, so listeners can’t tell what’s real and what’s not. Critics say that’s by design; AI music is cheaper for the platform because it dodges traditional royalties, and it can quietly push human artists out of playlists and recommendations.

What makes this different isn’t just the number of artists leaving,it’s who they are. Past boycotts were led by superstars like Taylor Swift, Neil Young, and Joni Mitchell, people who could afford to leave the world’s biggest streaming platform. Most of them came back.

This time, it’s independent and mid-tier musicians leading the charge, and they know it’s risky. Deerhoof said they could leave because they make most of their money from live shows, not streaming. But they left anyway.

Industry watchers say this is part of a bigger reckoning with how streaming actually works. Spotify loves to point out that it paid $10 billion to the music industry in 2024,its biggest payout ever. But individual artists, especially the ones outside the mainstream, still see almost nothing. Even when Spotify raised subscription prices, that money didn’t trickle down. It went to shareholders, not creators.

Meanwhile, platforms like Bandcamp have made it easier to leave. Artists can connect directly with fans and keep way more of their earnings. For some musicians, this isn’t just about money. It’s about pushing back against algorithms, corporate control, and the way creative work keeps getting treated like a commodity.

One industry observer put it simply: streaming platforms aren’t just facing protests anymore. They’re becoming easy to walk away from.

For a lot of artists leaving Spotify, it’s not just about saying no to one platform; it’s about saying yes to another. Bandcamp, which has always been on the fringes of the streaming world, is now looking like a real alternative, especially for independent musicians who care about how their work is treated.

Bandcamp works differently. Instead of algorithms and endless scale, it’s built on direct connections between artists and fans. Musicians set their own prices, control how their work looks, and keep around 82 to 85 percent of every sale. They get paid right away, and their earnings aren’t watered down by what millions of other people are listening to. For smaller artists, that means a few hundred dedicated fans can actually pay the bills, not just give you “exposure.”

Just as important is Bandcamp’s stance on AI. The platform has banned fully banned AI-generated music that doesn’t involve real human creativity. They’re not anti-technology, they’re pro-artist. There’s a difference between tools that help musicians and systems designed to replace them. While AI tracks flood other platforms with no labels or warnings, Bandcamp is making it clear: they’re on the side of transparency, credit, and actual people making art.

That clarity matters to musicians who are tired of black-box algorithms and losing their identity in the streaming machine. On Bandcamp, music comes with liner notes, artwork, essays, and actual community recommendations. It feels intentional again. The focus isn’t on passive listening, it’s on paying attention, being curious, and actually engaging.

For independent artists, the appeal is practical and philosophical. Bandcamp won’t make you go viral, but it offers something rare: a system where your creative work is treated like actual work, where listeners are people instead of data points, and where you can make a living through real engagement, not just racking up plays.

In that light, leaving Spotify isn’t always a protest. For a lot of artists, it’s just a smarter move toward platforms that actually reflect how they want their music to exist in the world and what they think it’s worth.

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