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UK trip-hop pioneers Massive Attack have become the latest artist to pull their music from Spotify. They are also participating in the “No Music for Genocide” campaign, which seeks to geo-block their music from streaming platforms in Israel.
The band explained their reasoning in an Instagram statement addressing both Spotify’s business practices and the Israel boycott:
“In light of the (reported) significant investments by [Spotify’s] CEO in a company producing military munition drones & Al technology integrated into fighter aircraft, Massive Attack have made a separate request to our label that our music be removed from the Spotify streaming service in all territories. In our view, the historic precedent of effective artist action during apartheid South Africa and the apartheid, war crimes and genocide now being committed by the state of Israel renders the ‘No Music For Genocide’ campaign imperative. In the separate case of Spotify, the economic burden that has long been placed on artists is now compounded by a moral & ethical burden, whereby the hard-earned money of fans & the creative endeavours of musicians ultimately funds lethal, dystopian technologies.”
In their statement, the group drew parallels between “No Music for Genocide” and past activist movements, as well as the current Film Workers for Palestine campaign:
“In 1991 the scourge of apartheid violence fell from South Africa, aided from a distance by public boycotts, protests, & the withdrawal of work by artists, musicians and actors. Complicity with that state was considered unacceptable. In 2025 the same now applies to the genocidal state of Israel. As of today, there’s a musician’s equivalent of the recently announced @filmworkers4palestine campaign (signed by 4,500 filmmakers, actors, industry workers & institutions) – it can be found @nomusicforgenocide & supports the wider asks of the growing @bds.movement . We’d appeal to all 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 hour after hour.”
Massive Attack have been particularly outspoken about their support for Palestine this year. In July, they launched an artist alliance to support musicians facing industry backlash for publicly speaking out against Israel’s military actions in Gaza.
Their decision to leave Spotify follows similar moves by bands including Deerhoof, Xiu Xiu, and King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, who pulled their catalogs from the platform in response to reports that CEO Daniel Ek is a chairman of Helsing, a German company specializing in AI military software.
Tonight, September 18th, they will join Kneecap at their Wembley Arena show in London for a “special audio/visual presentation.”
English (US) · 