British trip-hop pioneers Massive Attack have joined other bands and musicians in seeking to block their tracks being streamed in Israel as part of a cultural boycott campaign over the war in Gaza. The Bristol natives said they had joined No Music for Genocide, a new collective of musicians modelled on the Film Workers for Palestine group.
Massive Attack, who have nearly eight million monthly listeners on Spotify, wrote on Instagram on Thursday that they had asked their label, Universal, that “our music be removed from all… streaming services in the territory of Israel”. A website for No Music for Genocide says it brings together more than 400 artists and labels that “have geo-blocked and removed their music” from Israel in protest at the country’s Gaza campaign.
An AFP journalist in Jerusalem was still able to listen to Massive Attack and other top signatories such as Irish band Fontaines DC and punk-rappers Kneecap on Friday afternoon, however. AFP contacted the collective for comment. On its website, it offers advice to artists on how to geo-block their songs to make them unavailable on streaming platforms in Israel.
Spotify boycott
Massive Attack also announced that they had asked Universal to remove all of their songs from Spotify over investments in a European defence start-up by the CEO of the Swedish streaming platform.
Daniel Ek, Spotify’s co-founder and CEO, also runs a private equity company that led a consortium of investors which injected 600 million euros ($705m) in European military artificial intelligence and drone maker Helsing in June. Ek is also chairman of Helsing, which says on its website that its mission is “to protect our democratic values and open societies”.
Massive Attack, who are long-time anti-war campaigners, criticised the links between Spotify and Helsing, saying that “the hard-earned money of fans and the creative endeavours of musicians fund lethal, dystopian technologies”. Spotify declined to comment when contacted by AFP, but a spokesperson told The Guardian that Spotify and Helsing were “totally separate companies” and Helsing was “not involved in Gaza”.
“Our technology is deployed to European countries for deterrence and for defence against the Russian aggression in Ukraine only,” said a statement from Helsing on its website.
Like many other campaigners, Massive Attack cited the cultural boycott of apartheid-era South Africa as inspiration for their actions against Israel. “Complicity with that state was considered unacceptable,” the group said.
After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, many music industry companies withdrew or announced measures against Russia. Spotify closed its Moscow office and removed some sanctioned pro-war artists from the platform. Major record labels such as Sony, Universal and Warner all suspended their operations there and called for an end to the violence.
Massive Attack took part in a major concert in London on Wednesday evening called Together for Palestine, featuring top British artists including indie band Bastille, Brian Eno and DJ Jamie xx. With most Western governments resistant to major economic sanctions on Israel over the Gaza war, increasing numbers of musicians, actors and writers are speaking out in the hope of building public pressure for more action.