King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard beat the system and gain fans by changing music streaming platform

Prominent Australian genre-bending band King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard joined the increasing number of musicians quitting Spotify in July in protest over CEO Daniel Ek’s €600 million investment in German drone manufacturer Helsing. As reported from loudersound, the band has now taken all of its albums off of Spotify and are selling them on Bandcamp using their “Name Your Price” feature, which allows fans to spend $0.00 and more to download any of the albums, as if to demonstrate that money isn’t everything.

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek invests millions in Al military drone technology. We just removed our music from the platform. Can we put pressure on these Dr. Evil tech bros to do better?

As a result, King Gizzard & The Wizard Lizard currently have 27 best-selling albums on Bandcamp, with “PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation” at the top of the chart. The gloomy “Omnium Gatherum” from 2022 and “Nonagon Infinity” from 2016 round out the top three. After another five KGWL releases, regular service resumes at number 28, where Australian Christopher Larkin interrupts the celebration with his soundtrack for the computer game “Hollow Knight: “Silksong”. The shoegazers Hotline TNT, experimental rock outfit Xiu Xiu, and indie giants Deerhoof are among the other artists who have quit Spotify in protest of Ek’s investments. In their farewell statement, they called Spotify a “garbage hole violent armageddon portal.”

Upcoming shows:

Oct 31: Manchester Aviva Studios, United Kingdom ^
Nov 01: London Electric Brixton, United Kingdom ^
Nov 02: London Electric Brixton, United Kingdom ^
Nov 04: London Royal Albert Hall, United Kingdom *
Nov 05: Paris La Seine Musicale, France *
Nov 06: Tilburg 013 Poppodium, Netherlands ^
Nov 07: Den Bosch Mainstage, Netherlands *
Nov 09: Gdańsk Inside Seaside Festival, Poland *
Nov 10: Berlin Columbiahalle, Germany ^
Nov 11: Prague SaSaZu, Czech Republic ^
Nov 12: Vienna Gasometer, Austria ^
Nov 14: Copenhagen Poolen, Denmark ^
Nov 15: Gothenburg Gothenburg Film Studios, Sweden ^
Dec 02: Sydney Opera House, AU *
Dec 03: Sydney Opera House, AU *
Dec 05: Sydney Enmore Theatre, AU #
Dec 07: Brisbane Fortitude Music Hall, AU #
Dec 09: Brisbane The Princess Theatre, AU *
Dec 12: Melbourne Sidney Myer Music Bowl, AU %
Dec 13: Melbourne Sidney Myer Music Bowl, AU &

* = Orchestral show
^ = Rave show
# = Rock show with Party Dozen
% = Orchestral show with Folk Bitch Trio
& = Rock show with Barkaa