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'Technofascist military fantasy': Spotify faces boycott calls over CEO’s investment in AI military startup (www.middleeasteye.net)

submitted 5 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Spotify, the world’s leading music streaming platform, is facing intense criticism and boycott calls following CEO Daniel Ek’s announcement of a €600m ($702m) investment in Helsing, a German defence startup specialising in AI-powered combat drones and military software.

The move, announced on 17 June, has sparked widespread outrage from musicians, activists and social media users who accuse Ek of funnelling profits from music streaming into the military industry.

Many have started calling on users to cancel their subscriptions to the service.

“Finally cancelling my Spotify subscription – why am I paying for a fuckass app that works worse than it did 10 years ago, while their CEO spends all my money on technofascist military fantasies?” said one user on X.

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[-] [email protected] 24 points 5 days ago

IIRC Tidal and Qobuz should be good alternatives

[-] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago

Thanks.

I was talking to my wife this morning about this thread and the Qobuz recommendation was just what she needed to replace and cancel Spotify. She was able to import her playlists from her Spotify account and she's been commenting for the past couple hours about how much better the audio quality is.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago

Qoobuz had the most horrific app I've ever experienced.

Couldn't even search a song in a playlist bad.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

searching in a playlist in qobuz

I feel it's been getting better. Like, it isn't perfectly smooth, but I like what I get on the Frontpage way more than what I did with Spotify.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago

Oh yeah, I feel qobuz has the right mentality and ethos to really break into the scene and disrupt.

I loved everything about the experience, but the app was shockingly bad. Like, if it just behaved as gen 1 iTunes it would have been an improvement. Really bad at just the basic things. Just bad. And I cannot stress that enough lol.

I'll keep an eye on them, but whoo-boy! I've never been scared off from an app so quickly

[-] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

This is kinda funny to me because I was using Apple Music before, and I honestly feel it's less jank.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago

I will say I'm still rocking my samsung a71 so, maybe the tech just want up to it... but that experience was bad. Glad it works for you though

[-] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago

If might also just be a testament to how jank Apple Music on Android can be. Anyway, I just hope you find a solution that works well for you.

this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2025

748 points (98.1% liked)

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