€600m Spotify AI drone clusterfuck
Something’s shifting.
There’s been a lot of noise lately—understandably—about Spotify CEO Daniel Ek’s 600m € investment in Helsing, a military AI tech company. I mean, not only do we as artists earn a pittance through delivering our life’s work to Spotify, having made Daniel Ek a very, very rich man in the process. Daniel Ek is now worth over $2 billion. Meanwhile, Taylor Swift — the most streamed artist on Spotify — is estimated to be worth $1.1 billion. That’s weird, right? And now they’re using that money to pay for AI military drones??
And while the internet debates ethics, boycotts, and business as usual, I found myself doing something grounding and oddly comforting: shipping out CDs to listeners who ordered them directly from my Bandcamp shop.
It made me pause.
Maybe it's time to move back towards a more local, direct and human approach to sharing music. A DIY spirit. Real connections. Real support. But what would that really mean? Bandcamp, Substack, house concerts… What am I missing here?
But giving up streaming altogether? That still feels like a tough pill to swallow.
I’m not sure where I stand just yet—conflicted, questioning, listening. But something in the air feels different.
Are we at a tipping point?
Let me know what you think. I’d love to hear how all this lands with you
Meanwhile, I’ll be burning some CDs and walking over to the post office.
Old school!
—Dirk
