Toronto artist Triton has become one of the latest to pull his songs from Spotify, citing concerns about the company’s “insultingly low royalty payouts,” promotion of AI-generated music and funding of weaponry, among other reasons.
“The final two straws for me were when I read that the platform was running promotions for ICE, and that Spotify’s former CEO invests hundreds of millions into an AI defense technology company,” Triton said. “That disturbed me and led me to cancel my own Spotify subscription and begin to consider deleting my [own] music from the platform.”
Triton isn’t the first artist to make this decision. Other artists have been distancing themselves from the platform since 2022, when Neil Young and Joni Mitchell led the way off the app by removing their own music.
More recently, in summer of 2025, another wave of artists also removed their music and paused their professional relationships with Spotify.
This mass departure from the app resurfaced following the news that former Spotify CEO Daniel Ek, who stepped down Jan. 1, 2026, was investing hundreds of millions of dollars into a company that funds AI, which is being used to manufacture autonomous weapons such as drones.
Triton’s decision
Triton said he believes it’s important to stand by his decision as a young artist living in a politically unstable world.
“I think my generation’s experience growing up with wars, pandemics, civil unrest, fascists and genocides, has created a wave of artists and art lovers who recognize its political grounding and power,” he said. “With my decision I’m joining the generation of combination artists/activists that strive to simultaneously create art and make change.”
He said while his music isn’t inherently political, he draws from his lived experiences as a young adult in a politically unstable world.
“Songs of mine like ‘Hell,’ ‘Michigan’ and ‘R.E.M.’ are based around confusion and fear of the rapidly changing world and my search for a place in it,” Triton said.
The decision to remove one’s music from a platform where many people discover new artists is an easier one for more established artists to make. For emerging artists, it’s more of a risk.
But Triton said he is not worried leaving Spotify will impact his career because it doesn’t mean his music will stop being heard.
“My music will remain on all other major streaming platforms, and social media libraries, as well as free for download and for streaming on Bandcamp, SoundCloud, and YouTube,” he said. “I wasn’t earning any money from Spotify anyway.”
Triton feels confident in his decision, saying “I’ve been getting booked for more shows, and have had more conversations with peers about Spotify, the modern music industry we work in, and the political implications of our careers as musicians, which in my book means my decision has been a success.”
Triton is part of a broader musical community in Canada that is fighting back against platforms taking advantage of artists and inserting AI usage into the creative space.
“[N]early every song ever written by a Canadian songwriter has already been scraped and stolen by these AI companies without consent, credit or compensation,” according to a document released by Music Publishers Canada.
Triton said, “I’m hopeful for a fairer music industry sometime in the near future as long as artists and audiences keep standing up and making themselves heard.”
