A growing number of Chicago artists are pulling their music from the largest streaming platform, Spotify, over concerns about AI-generated music, data privacy, and compensation.

At least 80 Chicago musicians have signed an open letter published on September 22, citing concerns about the company's ties to AI technology companies, "unfair and inadequate compensation" for artists on the platform, "the proliferation an promotion of unlabeled AI music" on Spotify, and the company's "extensive surveillance and behavioral nudging of its users towards passive listening and engagement with music."

Organizers Sam Cantor, of Minor Moon, and Austin Koenigstein, of Smushie, first had the idea during the summer after larger bands, like Deerhoof and King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, pulled their music from Spotify in response to the platform's CEO, Daniel Ek, investing $640 million into a German defense startup.

"It had reached the final straw for me," Cantor said. 

The letter was Koenigstein's brainchild, and Cantor put the "pen to paper" or fingers to keys. 

"I reached out to Sam with the idea of maybe it could be neat to have some sort of collective action in Chicago, around getting as many people, as many bands off of the platform to delegitimize it and make the audiences in Chicago consider what other options were at their disposal," Koenigstein said. 

"Together, we could really make a splash in the way that larger artists could," Cantor said. The number of signatures doubled in the first few days and continues to grow. 

One of those signatures is by rapper and poet Mykele Deville, who joined Spotify the moment he started releasing music back in 2016.

"Everybody knows it, and I thought that this would be how I got discovered, quote, unquote," he said.

But he said the compensation for streams on Spotify really struck a flat note.

"I would say, as an indie artist, it is nonexistent. You get fractions of a percentage of a penny if you get it," he said.

Deville had already withheld his new album from Spotify weeks prior to Cantor sharing the letter. "I made the decision to try and reeducate my audience to find my music where I can be equitably compensated for it, and at the same time [Cantor] was putting together this list of artists who also felt that need to switch over to a more equitable platform," he said. 

 "So this letter is a way for us to take back our agency and autonomy," he said. 

Spotify publishes annual aggregated data in its economic report, called "Loud & Clear." 

"In 2024, independent artists and labels collectively* generated more than $5 billion from Spotify — representing about half of total Spotify royalties for another year," according to the report. 

However, Spotify does not publish a detailed account of its individual payouts to artists. "Spotify does not pay artist royalties according to a per-play or per-stream rate; the royalty payments that artists receive might vary according to differences in how their music is streamed or the agreements they have with labels or distributors," according to the platform.

According to Cantor, "the major labels have used their leverage to get better deals with Spotify than the indie labels have, so we just don't have access to the scale that major artists achieve, who are earning millions and millions of streams, and they are actually able to earn meaningful amounts of money."

"But we are asked to play the same game," he said. 

"We just want music to feel that it's not putting more harm and bad energy into the world. We also want to feel power. We want to feel a choice," Koenigstein said.

Deville also said that Spotify's investment in surveillance and military technology is "antithetical" to many of the artists' messages.

But he said the "biggest disrespect" is AI-generated content. "It shows us that we're replaceable," Deville said.

In the open letter, Cantor credits music journalist Liz Pelly's book "Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist" for her research on Spotify. 

In part, the open letter said, "as Liz Pelly has reported, over the years a system of "ghost artists" have been hired to create cheaper imitations of popular songs or trends as a part of a company effort called "Perfect Fit Content" – a network of music produced with lower royalty rates for Spotify that have crowded coveted playlists for years. The acceleration of generative AI only intensifies this logic." 

A Spotify spokesperson responded with a statement, saying in part, "Regarding the promotion of AI-generated content, we have just announced new protections against spam, impersonation, and deception."

"Additionally, there is no truth to the assertion that we are 'nudging users toward passive listening,'" they added.

A spokesperson also stated that all major streaming services pay out based on the same pro-rata model, and Spotify pays out the most.

But Deville said he's found platforms with a "more even playing field" and gave Bandcamp as an example. He also emphasized the importance of selling physical copies of his music and merch at shows. 

"When people think Spotify, they think music, they don't think AI, they don't think unfair compensation and bad labor practices. So in order to get away from that, they have to do something about that," Deville said.

"Chicago is a music scene that is kept afloat by community," Koenigstein said. "A whole lot of people feel like they have a choice again, not just in terms of how they distribute their music, but in terms of how they consume it."

"Our continued hope is that people in other places will use this as a model for organizing their own exit from Spotify," Cantor said. 

Spotify's full statement is below:

Spotify will continue to be a place where artists can find an audience and build a career, and independent artists like these are earning more from our platform than any other streaming service. In 2024, independent artists generated about half of the more than $10 billion Spotify paid out to rightsholders.

Regarding the promotion of AI-generated content, we have just announced new protections against spam, impersonation, and deception. Additionally, there is no truth to the assertion that we are "nudging users toward passive listening."  Our focus is creating the most engaging experience for users in order to maximize payouts to rightsholders and artists. Our growth is predicated on the growth of those record payouts, so the assertion would not make sense for Spotify."

• Spotify paid out $10 billion to the music industry last year and has paid out $60 billion all time – more than any company has ever paid in the history of the music industry.
• This growth has helped double global recorded industry revenue, from $13B in 2014 to nearly $30BB in 2024 — with streaming now representing more than two-thirds of that revenue.
• Perhaps more importantly, more artists than ever before are sharing in that money. The landscape has changed.
• It is an indisputable fact. The number of artists generating at least $1,000, $10,000, $100,000 and even $10 million per year on Spotify alone has at least tripled since 2017. We share all of these figures and more in our annual economics report, Loud & Clear.
• That is a far cry from the pre-streaming era, when a radio station only had room to spin the Top 40 tracks, or when a record store could only carry a few thousand artists on its shelves (and only from those with the means to have a physical product made and distributed globally).