A growing group of Chicago artists is pulling their music from the number 1 streaming service in the world, over concerns about AI-generated music and compensation on the Spotify platform.
The list of local musicians getting off Spotify is growing by the day.
At least 75 Chicago musicians have signed an open letter published on Monday, saying they’ve taken their music off Spotify because of concerns about the company’s ties to AI technology companies, “unfair and inadequate compensation” for artists on the platform, “the proliferation an promotion of unlabeled AI music” on Spotify, and the company’s “extensive surveillance and behavioral nudging of its users towards passive listening and engagement with music.”
Now the streaming giant is responding to their concerns.
Rapper Mykele Deville, who grew up listening to politically conscious rap, said he got on Spotify the moment he started releasing music back in 2016.
“Everybody knows it, and I thought that this would be how I got discovered, quote, unquote,” he said. “I just know metaphors in books and things, so that’s helped me to craft my sound and what I rap about.”
But he said the compensation for streams on Spotify really struck a flat note.
“I would say, as an indie artist, it is nonexistent. You get fractions of a percentage of a penny if you get it,” he said.
Local artists Sam Cantor, who fronts the band Minor Moon, and Austin Koenigstein, of Smushie, had similar gripes, as well as concerns about user data privacy and unlabeled AI-generated music on the platform.
“Stuff where they make, in a cheaper way, things that sound like hit songs, but … the platform doesn’t have to pay as much in royalties to the artist,” Cantor said.
“That is the biggest kind of disrespect to a lot of us. It shows us that we’re replaceable,” Deville said.
Cantor and Koenigstein published the open letter outlining their concerns, with signers announcing their intentions to leave the platform as a result.
“Chicago is a music scene that is kept afloat by community,” Koenigstein said. “A whole lot of people feel like they have a choice again, not just in terms of how they distribute their music, but in terms of how they consume it.”
A Spotify spokesperson responded with a statement, saying in part, “Regarding the promotion of AI-generated content, we have just announced new protections against spam, impersonation, and deception.”
“Additionally, there is no truth to the assertion that we are ‘nudging users toward passive listening,'” they added.
A spokesperson also stated that all major streaming services pay out based on the same pro-rata model, and Spotify pays out the most.
But Deville said he’s found platforms with a “more even playing field”
“When people think Spotify, they think music, they don’t think AI, they don’t think unfair compensation and bad labor practices. So in order to get away from that, they have to do something about that,” Deville said.
The local artists also take issue with the Spotify CEO’s investment in a German military AI technology company called Helsing.
Spotify referred to a statement on their website stating their technology is deployed in Ukraine for “defense against Russian aggression.”
Spotify’s full statement is below:
Spotify will continue to be a place where artists can find an audience and build a career, and independent artists like these are earning more from our platform than any other streaming service. In 2024, independent artists generated about half of the more than $10 billion Spotify paid out to rightsholders.
Regarding the promotion of AI-generated content, we have just announced new protections against spam, impersonation, and deception. Additionally, there is no truth to the assertion that we are “nudging users toward passive listening.” Â Our focus is creating the most engaging experience for users in order to maximize payouts to rightsholders and artists. Our growth is predicated on the growth of those record payouts, so the assertion would not make sense for Spotify.”
Spotify paid out $10 billion to the music industry last year and has paid out $60 billion all time – more than any company has ever paid in the history of the music industry.This growth has helped double global recorded industry revenue, from $13B in 2014 to nearly $30BB in 2024 — with streaming now representing more than two-thirds of that revenue.Perhaps more importantly, more artists than ever before are sharing in that money. The landscape has changed.It is an indisputable fact. The number of artists generating at least $1,000, $10,000, $100,000 and even $10 million per year on Spotify alone has at least tripled since 2017. We share all of these figures and more in our annual economics report, Loud & Clear.That is a far cry from the pre-streaming era, when a radio station only had room to spin the Top 40 tracks, or when a record store could only carry a few thousand artists on its shelves (and only from those with the means to have a physical product made and distributed globally).