Spotify, the world’s leading music streaming platform, is facing intense criticism and boycott calls following CEO Daniel Ek’s announcement of a €600m ($702m) investment in Helsing, a German defence startup specialising in AI-powered combat drones and military software.

The move, announced on 17 June, has sparked widespread outrage from musicians, activists and social media users who accuse Ek of funnelling profits from music streaming into the military industry.

Many have started calling on users to cancel their subscriptions to the service.

“Finally cancelling my Spotify subscription – why am I paying for a fuckass app that works worse than it did 10 years ago, while their CEO spends all my money on technofascist military fantasies?” said one user on X.

      • FerretyFever0@fedia.io
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        11 hours ago

        Similar interface? Any ads or anything (don’t have premium so that’s an upgrade)? Easy enough to use? Can I make a 6k song playlist?

        • Seasm0ke@lemmy.world
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          10 hours ago

          Its pretty much a clone, but faster / more responsive. Good dynamic playlists. Free version has ads. https://www.deezer.com/en/offers/free

          You can make and migrate your playlists, but you have to use their cross sign in api. I would prefer CSV or json export import myself.

          Oh it also has lyrics in most apps. I actually like it better and wish I had signed up sooner instead of fucking with Pandora for so long