Massive Attack are planning new music for next year – but without Spotify. All the background information about the decision, the new label and the conflict with the streaming service.
Massive Attack want to release a batch of new music – and do without Spotify. Taking to Instagram, the trip-hop band said: “Starting next year we will be releasing a collection of work we have created in the past. Songs will be available physically and digitally through a new label. Excluding Spotify.”
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In the comments under the post, numerous users expressed their approval of this decision and praised Spotify’s exclusion. Within 20 hours, the post garnered almost 30,000 likes.
The Bristol artists have not released any new music since their 2020 self-released EP EUTOPIA. Her last studio album is HELIGOLAND from 2010.
Songs “held back for many years.”
In an interview with NME in 2024, band member Robert Del confirmed that they “have some new songs that we’ve been holding back for four years,” adding: “Hopefully we can release them next year and do some concerts.”
Dispute over investment in military company
The conflict between Massive Attack and Spotify arose earlier this year after it was revealed that the band had asked their label Universal to remove their music from the platform. According to NME, they were responding to reports that Spotify CEO Daniel Ek had invested 600 million euros in Helsing, a Munich-based company that develops drones and artificial intelligence for military operations.
In a statement, the band said at the time, according to NME: “In light of the (reported) significant investment by the CEO of [Spotify] a company that produces military munitions drones and AI technology integrated into fighter jets, Massive Attack has separately asked our label to remove our music from the Spotify streaming service in all regions.”
“Moral and ethical burden”
They continued: “The economic burden that has long weighed on artists is now compounded by a moral and ethical burden, as fans’ hard-earned money and musicians’ creative efforts end up funding deadly, dystopian technologies.”
In an interview with “NME” in 2024, the band also suggested that “disputes at the label” were also a reason for the delay in releasing new music. To date, the group’s studio albums have been released via Virgin Records and its imprint Circa, which was acquired by Universal Music Group (UMG) in 2012.
Spotify has come under sharp criticism in recent months, among other things because it places advertisements for the controversial US immigration agency ICE on the streaming platform.