Spotify Wrapped 2017-2025

I believe that 2025 is the beginning of a new era. We are becoming more and more disappointed in the technology that surrounds and enslaves us. For instance, when social media was in its infancy, we were promised new ways of communicating and sharing ideas. However, nobody likes their relationship with social media anymore. We have come full circle. We are done. We are all totally fried. Our mental health and concentration has been shot to pieces. “Enshittification” is complete. 

I must feel pure at heart to be able to create. Releasing music still gives me huge pleasure, but recently I have been confused and anxious about the process. After a period of contemplation, I realized that the reason is Spotify Technology S.A.. It is for this reason that I have decided to pull my solo catalog from Spotify and stop releasing new music on the platform. This also applies to soundtrack albums created together with Tuomo Puranen. This is my investment towards a future where I have no obstacles between me and how I release my work.

There are many reasons for this. Firstly, there is the total lack of respect for artists. Daniel Ek, Spotify’s co-founder and CEO, is attempting to gamify and water down the experience of music. For me personally, if one person would understand and feel the meaning of what I'm trying to do then that would be enough. This is why the stats and social media aspects of Spotify feels totally moronic and totally unnecessary. 

The techbro Ek also betrayed artists by rewarding Joe Rogan with an exclusive deal worth some three hundred and fifty million dollars, thereby making Spotify part of the right-wing culture wars. By giving him a platform to spread delusional conspiracy theories and punch down on trans and queer people, Ek has helped him to monetise hate. Rogan is the Dunning-Kruger effect manifested into the form of a man. This is cruelty and grievance with no self reflection—a perfect example of reactionary fragile masculinity.

Another reason relates to money. As a self-employed entrepreneur, I’m not accepting Spotify’s pricing model. Artists are locked into a predetermined economy without the possibility to negotiate sustainable rates. How can we secure the future costs of producing music, let alone make a spartan living? We are paid less and less, and shareholders are rewarded with more and more. Spotify is the modern day metaphor of the Soviet Union's government-run label Melodiya (Мелодия) records. If you lived there, that was your only option. 

Spotify is also rigging the game by creating fake artists so they can pay less to real artists; they do this in collaboration with another parasitic company called Epidemic Sound. Ghost artists have Spotify verified blue badges and fake bios. For instance, the information for a fake producer called Ekfat reads “Ekfat as a classically trained Icelandic beat maker who graduated from the “Reykjavik music conservatory,” joined the “legendary Smekkleysa Lo-Fi Rockers crew” in 2017, and released music only on limited-edition cassettes until 2019. Neither the Reykjavik Music Conservatory, the Smekkleysa Lo-Fi Rockers crew, or these cassettes exist! It would almost be funny if these ghost artists weren’t garnering over fifteen billion streams—that’s more than Metallica, Michael Jackson, and Elton John. This is not to mention the whole issue of Spotify’s manipulation of plays and playlists. Their relationship with major labels is sketchy to say the least! (Reported by Liz Pelly in the book “Mood Machine” 2025) 

Finally, in 2021, Ek’s investment company Prima Materia invested €100 million ($114 million USD) into Helsing, an artificial intelligence company that assists in military technological ventures and has just unveiled HX-2, an “intelligent strike drone” which has been “designed from the ground up to be software-based, mass-producible, and swarm-capable”. Personally I feel extremely uncomfortable being associated with a music distributor that also side hustles as a weapons dealer.   

These are some of the reasons why I am leaving Spotify. It is my right, it is my duty. 

You can find me on the Öm Sound Bandcamp, Optimo Music Bandcamp and all other streaming platforms. 

See you soon. Peace!

Helsinki 2.2.2025 

Timo Kaukolampi