A letter to Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify

Dear Daniel Ek,

Most of what I’ve seen lately in tech and music has been noise. A world claiming to build the future… while mostly just selling ads. I don’t like it, but I can deal with it.

But then I saw your name in a news story I can’t deal with: http://bit.ly/3H5Dh42

You invested $1B into AI military tech.
Not tools for artists.
Not ways to connect.
But weapons.

Maybe you didn’t think people would notice?
We did.

Honestly, I’m not the type to speak up but you’ve made it impossible to stay silent.

“When the axe came into the forest, the trees said: the handle is one of us.”

You built Spotify on the backs of musicians. Small artists, indies, the overlooked and unpaid. And now that machine… the one we fed… is being used to fund weapons.

That’s not just disappointing.
That’s betrayal.

And look … who am I to even write you?
I’m not trying to posture like I’m important.
I’m not.
I’m a nobody.
But you awoken something in me: purpose.

And after 14 years, I’ve decided to cancel my account.
Not as a performance. Not as a protest I expect anyone to notice. But because I couldn’t stomach paying for it anymore.

For the time being, I’ll switch to something else.

But as of today, I’m building a better alternative. One that won’t include: funnelling music into machines built to kill.

No, I don’t have your platform.
No, I don’t have your resources.
But I do have a pulse. And even better, now I have something I can point my work at that feels like it matters.

No, I didn’t want to “start a thing.”
But you’ve made it clear: we have to stop you.

You’ve reminded me why I started making things in the first place.

This isn’t about disruption or competition.
It’s about refusal.

I refuse to let music, and the people who make it, be co-opted into something this dark.

If that puts me in your way… so be it.

Some of us still believe music is for the people.

— Trav @ ozz.fm

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