Artists are leaving Spotify (again). Here’s what’s different now

A growing number of indie artists are leaving Spotify, due to CEO Daniel Ek’s AI military investments and deeper frustrations with streaming. Their quiet exits hint at a shift in artist priorities that could disrupt the digital music.

Artists are leaving Spotify (again). Here’s what’s different now

by  Tatiana Cirisano from MIDiA Research

Over the past few weeks, a growing list of indie bands have decided to leave Spotify, the most prominent being Deerhoof and King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard (a partial list has been compiled by Fader). The main point of contention is Spotify CEO Daniel Ek’s recent investments into AI military defence company Helsing, but several of these artists have also taken the opportunity to throw broader criticism at Spotify – noting that they are not earning much from the platform, anyway.

This is not the first time artists have left streaming platforms as a form of protest, and certainly not Spotify’s first rodeo. The most high-profile recent spat was in 2022, when Neil Young boycotted Spotify to protest vaccine misinformation being spread on Joe Rogan’s podcast. This came after artists like Garth Brooks, Thom Yorke, Taylor Swift, and Prince all pulled music from streaming services in years past, for a variety of reasons.

Usually, the artists who protest are big enough that they have both the potential to drive change, and ability to survive without the world’s biggest streaming platform. In fact, the resulting press often serves to drive up their streams elsewhere. Even so, most of these boycotters end up returning to the platforms they left – as Young did in March 2024.

However, a number of things set this case apart. It is led by smaller bands, for whom Ek’s investment appears to be their “final straw” amid a much longer list of grievances. There are also wider industry shifts emerging, even in the mere three years since Rogan-gate. Most importantly, many artists’ views towards the streaming system have shifted from anger to apathy – which may be the more dangerous of the two.

[ FEATURED REPORT: Music subscriber market shares Q4 2024Full stream ahead – Streaming market metrics are bifurcating. Label streaming revenues were up in 2024, indicating a much anticipated slow down in revenue growth. Yet, at the same time, music subscriber growth was nearly double that of label streaming revenues for 2024. As is so often the case, there are many factors at play. Find out more… ]

The value of a stream

As MIDiA recently wrote, streaming’s value proposition for artists has changed dramatically. With the vast majority unable to earn meaningful streaming income, streaming’s value initially shifted to exposure. Yet getting discovered is increasingly difficult on streaming, not just because of fragmenting listenership, but because music is now paired with other formats, like podcasts and videos. So artists are shifting focus to building core fanbases and monetising them off-platform – which, according to our studies, they do not find streaming services very helpful for, either.

Ek’s Helsing investment was the final straw for the recent boycotters not just because of political disagreement, but also because it was otherwise not a difficult decision to make. Their choice to leave seemed less about trying to drive a larger movement, and more because they simply did not see much upside in staying anymore. This is a shift from past controversies, when artists were forced to weigh their values with their ability to reach audiences. Usually, platforms win out. However, these days, at least for smaller artists, it does not seem to take as much to make the opposite decision. In fact, for a small but growing new class of artists, streaming was never their focal point in the first place.

Of course, the critiques artists have of Spotify apply to most other streaming services – which should be paying attention, and considering these problems as their own. If progressively more artists realise they can get by without Spotify, the same would apply to streaming as a whole.

The bigger picture

Of course, a dozen or so indie bands leaving Spotify is not going to tip the scales today. The unfortunate irony is that in streaming’s pro rata economy, anyone leaving the system directly benefits those who remain. The vast majority of users won’t notice, anyway – it would take a dozen superstars leaving Spotify to have any sort of impact on usership, and superstars are the least likely to do so, with streaming a much larger portion of their businesses.

However, the takeaway here is what this incident says about the future. If there are fewer perceived benefits keeping smaller (or newer) artists on streaming platforms, more of them may decide it is not worth the effort – and be more easily tipped to leave when, in this case, their values do not align with the platform’s. While their leaving will initially benefit those who stay, departing artists will take their fans elsewhere, potentially to new spaces and business models that do not even exist yet. So while many may dismiss the bands who have left Spotify, it would be smart to pay attention to what they do next. There is one final twist: if listenership remains as fragmented as it is today, the next generation will not revolve around a handful of superstars, but instead spread their listening across many, smaller, cult successes – bands like the ones who just left Spotify. In this way, smaller acts (and the choices they make) will have more impact. 

It is not just these bands’ statements that Spotify – and for that matter, most other streaming services – should be wary of, but rather what is between the lines. Once a lightning rod for protest, streaming is at risk of becoming something worse: easy to walk away from.

Want the latest entertainment research and insights directly to your inbox? Our newsletter has you covered, click here to subscribe.