Post-rock trio Jagged City have taken a stark stand against streaming giant Spotify with today’s (December 04th) release of their new single, “Imaginary Lines“. That outfit’s roster includes Defeater guitarist Jake Woodruff, bassist Carlos Torres (ex-Explosions In The Sky touring member) and drummer Urian Hackney (Rough Francis, The Armed, etc.)
While the aforementioned track plays out as planned on most digital service providers, the upload provided to Spotify cuts out at 1:04 in. It’s there the band stop the song to deliver what they call a public service announcement. At that point, they go on to say [transcribed by theprp.com]:
“This is a public service announcement from Jagged City. Due to their investment in AI weapons, extremely low artist payouts, and promotion of completely non-human made songs, this track will not be available on this platform. We encourage you to buy our music from our label, Pelagic Records, from our band at shows, from Bandcamp, or listen on another less compromised streaming service.”
That message goes on to loop for the duration of the next two minutes, slowly deteriorating as the pitch is slowed and skewed. Spotify have found themselves increasingly under fire for a variety of reasons. Back in 2022, revered space rockers Failure pulled their majority of their catalog from the service in protest of low streaming royalty payouts and giving a platform to Joe Rogan.
Several years later, it would seem that little has changed, as Aaron Lewis, frontman for the multi-platinum alternative metal band Staind, railed against the low payouts afforded to artists by the service this past August. Lewis‘ criticism was rather alarming given the high profile his band maintain. He stated in an interview with Tucker Carlson:
“I’m a Spotify billionaire. I’ve have over a billion spins on Spotify. If I only had a penny for every spin on Spotify, that would be fantastic. A dollar, a a quarter, a penny from every spin. With over a billion spins on Spotify. All I have is a plaque… By the time Spotify plays it, there’s so many people in the middle. I don’t even think a penny comes my way to be honest with you.”
This past summer also saw a growing movement of artists withdraw their music from the service after taking issue with Spotify CEO Daniel Ek. The latter had been seen to lead a $693.6 million round of funding for Helsing via his Prima Materia venture capital firm. Helsing have been developing AI technology for military applications. Prolific psych rockers King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard and many more left the service in protest of Ek‘s investments.
The latest round of controversy to hit the streaming service came this fall over their willingness to air advertisements recruiting individuals to work for the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. The current U.S. administration’s deployment of that agency, more commonly referred to as ICE, have been particularly divisive amid mass ongoing immigration raids. Emo/post-hardcore favs Thursday were vocal in calling for Spotify to remove the ads.
As for this new track from Jagged City, it’s their first single from their upcoming debut EP, “There Are More Of Us, Always“. Pelagic Records will release that outing on January 30th. Woodruff said of this newly shared track from that 7-song collection:
“‘Imaginary Lines‘ is a meditation on how all lines are imaginary – all borders are fake, all classifications are arbitrary, all divisions aren’t real. We are all connected, and any line made by force and power is a denial of that. Musically, this is the first full song on the record, and Urian nailed the groove – it feels natural, even though it’s in 5. I love how the chime-like guitar and fuzzed-out bass tones came together with the drum groove to form a cohesive, intimate, natural-sounding song.”
