Many artists have been pulling their music from Spotify: Massive Attack, Xiu Xiu, Deerhoof, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Hotline TNT, WU LYF, Young Widows, and many more. It was originally in protest of CEO Daniel Ek’s massive investment in military AI, but musicians are even angrier after the streaming service started running ICE recruitment ads. Now Saetia are removing their material from the platform.
“As many of you have noticed, Saetia is in the process of removing our music from Spotify,” the screamo band’s statement began, continuing:
‘Collected’ is no longer available, and ‘Tendrils’ will soon be off the platform as well. Ultimately, we decided that Spotify in particular does not at all align with the band’s values or ethos. Whether it’s running ice recruitment advertisements or paying artists fractions of pennies on the dollar while subsidizing voices like Joe Rogan, we just felt it was time to separate our music from their message.
To be clear, Saetia is not opposed to accessing music on streaming platforms. In fact, we acknowledge (and even celebrate!) the fact that the majority of Saetia fans discovered the band by way of file sharing and streaming services. This decision has nothing at all to do with access.
We also acknowledge and admit that while we are especially out of sync with a company like Spotify, it’s not like we are in lockstep with other corporations currently streaming our music. The reality is that across the world, over 1.5 billion people are streaming music. In the us, only 10% of music listeners actually buy physical media. This reality means small DIY bands like ourselves have difficult decisions and considerations when faced with a landscape that is engineered to prioritize access over ethics. Whatever compromises come with being an artist in 2025, we can still do small things that feel right to us, so that is what we did.
To some of you, we are causing a headache and inconvenience and to others, we are probably not doing enough. Although we can’t possibly be everything to everybody, we need to make the decisions that make sense to us and speak to our beliefs. To those of you who purchased or downloaded our music — make copies for your friends that typically stream us on Spotify.
Our music has been shared across this community for 25 years and we have seen first hand that the connections you make sharing music will mean more than a Saetia listing on your annual Spotify Wrapped.
Thanks for listening and take care of one another.
Earlier this year, Saetia released their first new music in 26 years.
