Last month I began a certification training program to teach Qigong.
As a student of Qigong and Taoism, my practice has two primary aims: to bring myself into harmony with my essence as an individual, and to bring myself into harmony with my environment. One of the benefits of consistent practice has been clarity around issues that previously felt complicated.
My relationship to big tech is one such issue. I haven’t logged into Instagram in weeks, I deleted my Amazon Prime subscription, and on July 4th, I canceled my Spotify subscription. Finally, I pulled my work from streaming after learning that Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek played a critical role fundraising $700 million for Helsing, a military tech company that specializes in AI drones and weapons manufacturing.
There are so many forces outside of my control in the present moment. I’m reminded of that daily in my allotted hour of news consumption. As the US continues to fuel Israel’s attacks and starvation campaign against the people in Ghaza, it wages its own war against the most socio-politically vulnerable here at home. Whether that’s in our courts with the reversal of constitutional rights, in our neighborhoods terrorized by ICE agents, or in the gutting of public services including arts and education funding, I am led to evaluate my agency within and in relationship to these systems.
My creative work being used in any way to support killing and war profiteering is one of the things in my control.
Ek’s initial investment in Helsing was in 2021, but I didn’t know then what it was or what it would become. I bring this up because when a company like Spotify is built on a foundation of exploitation, and there’s no counterforce to check its trajectory, we shouldn’t be surprised when its values scale alongside its profits. If growth is the primary goal, then exploitation doesn’t just persist, it compounds.
Leaving Spotify has been a long time coming. Even beyond my issues with it as an artist, as a listener, I started to feel dread when I opened the app, bombarded by pop-ups for music projects and podcasts I don’t follow and have no interest in. My experience on the app was no longer dictated by my preferences, playlists, and saved content, but by label money pushing their commodities to the front page. It felt aggressive, chaotic, junky…an unpleasant mess to wade through, even as a paid subscriber.
I’ve transitioned my music to Bandcamp and plan to use my previous streaming subscription budget to buy and download music directly from musicians on the platform (which is actually wayyy better for the environment too!). As I was uploading my catalogue to Bandcamp, I remembered yet another reason I was relieved to have Spotify out of my life. The sound quality on Spotify is atrocious and super compressed. The sound quality of my songs on Bandcamp is how I intended them to be heard. I’d love for you to follow me there or to my website, where I’ll be sharing music and work going forward.
*I got deep in the research writing this post and want to cover the topic more thoroughly. If you’re curious to read more, becoming a paid subscriber is a lovely way to support that writing and stay connected.
**Shoutout to UMAW for all of their efforts and organizing to create equity in the music industry. It makes me hopeful to witness their work in disseminating knowledge and in lobbying policymakers. The existence of collective movements like this make it much easier to add my voice to the effort.
***Thanks to my sisters, Taylor and Eden, and friends, Jay and Kana, for editing support with this and the forthcoming longer essay
Sometime soon I’ll share more about FUTURE POTATO, a collection of clown wear I’ve been making for pets and humans. My favorite part is making custom collars for Kingston’s snazziest pets and I added a few to my website for your shopping pleasure. I just finished a bridal commission for a Chiweenie. Photos to come xox