Massive Attack Removes Music from Spotify in Protest of CEO’s AI Military Investment
LONDON – Massive Attack has removed its entire catalog from Spotify in protest of CEO Daniel Ek’s investment in Palantir, a controversial AI company with ties to the Israeli military. The move, announced via an Instagram post today, joins a growing boycott of the streaming platform spearheaded by the “Nomusicforgenocide” campaign.
The band’s decision follows a wider trend of artists restricting their music’s availability on streaming services to protest Israel‘s actions in Gaza. Artists including Amyl and the Sniffers, Rina Sawayama, jockstrap, John Glacier, and others have either edited release territories or requested geo-blocking from their distributors and labels.
Massive Attack’s Instagram post drew a direct parallel to the cultural boycotts against apartheid South Africa in the 1990s, stating, “In 1991 the scourge of apartheid violence fell from South Africa, aided from a distance by public boycotts… In 2025 the same now applies to the genocidal state of Israel.” The band urged fellow musicians to “transfer their sadness, anger and artistic contributions into a coherent, reasonable & vital action to end the unspeakable hell being visited upon the Palestinians.”
This action builds on Massive Attack’s previous formation of a syndicate for artists supporting Palestine, launched in July alongside Brian Eno, Kneecap, and Fontaines DC. The syndicate aims to protect musicians from “threatened into silence or career cancellation” by groups like UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI), wich has previously reported artists - including Bob Vylan for a chant at Glastonbury – and the BBC for broadcasting pro-Palestinian expression.
“This collective action is really about offering some kind of solidarity to those artists who are living day after day in a screen-time genocide, but are worried about using their platforms,” Massive Attack told The Guardian in July. “The intention is clear and obvious: to silence them.”
Palantir, co-founded by Ek, provides AI platforms used by the Israeli military, raising concerns about its role in the conflict. The “Nomusicforgenocide” campaign, linked to the broader Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, calls for a complete cultural and economic boycott of Israel.
