King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, the ridiculously prolific psych rock outfit hailing from Australia, appear to have taken a stance against dominant digital service provider Spotify. Fans have noted that numerous albums from the group have recently disappeared from the aforementioned streaming service, seemingly including all output issued under their own KGLW label. Their earlier offerings that came out via Flightless Records, ATO Records and other labels remains available on the service.
Some of the affected albums newly missing from Spotify include their latest effort “Phantom Island” and its various predecessors, “Flight b741“, “The Silver Cord“, “PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation“, and more.
While the band don’t appear to have provided an official statement as to the absence of a significant chunk of their recent output, a post issued today, July 25th, alongside the release of a new collection of bootlegs made clear that they are currently taking a stance against the popular streaming service. That set is titled “Demos Vol. 7+8” and the band said alongside its reveal, “New demos collection out everywhere except Spotify (fuck Spotify) You can bootleg it if you wanna…”
Recent days have seen a wave of artists pull their music from Spotify in protest of the company’s CEO Daniel Ek‘s involvement in leading a $693.6 million round of funding for Helsing. Ek was involved in helping raise that sum via his venture capital firm Prima Materia, which he co-founded. Helsing is leveraging AI technology for military purposes on the battlefield, leading to the backlash from the likes of Xiu Xiu and Deerhoof, who have publicly taken steps to remove their music from the service in protest.
Spotify has also faced hot water before for criticism over artist royalty payout rates and striking lucrative deals with controversial figures. As of press time, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard don’t appear to have publicly communicated the reasoning behind their missing music, which remains in place on other leading digital service providers.
Update: July 25th, 2025 01:27pm:
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have confirmed they’ve pulled their music from Spotify in protest of the streaming service’s CEO Daniel Ek‘s involvement in funding AI military technology. The band’s statement was shared via their Instagram this afternoon and reads:
“Hello friends
A PSA to those unaware: Spotify CEO Daniel Ek invests millions in AI military drone technology
We just removed our music from the platform
Can we put pressure on these Dr. Evil tech bros to do better?
Join us on another platform”
