Spotify, It's Not Us, It's You

We're breaking up with Spotify, and here's why.

We're moving our playlist candles from Spotify to Tidal. We've been delaying this move for way too long, hoping to find the "perfect" ethical music streaming solution.

Spoiler alert: there isn't one.

But we can't keep using a platform that pays artists $0.003 per stream, is filled with fake AI-generated music, and is actively funding drone weaponry and genocides. So, we're moving to Tidal.

F Daniel Ek

The breaking point was discovering that Spotify CEO Daniel Ek has invested heavily in AI defense technology and drone warfare through his company Prima Materia. Everything else we'd been tolerating suddenly felt impossible to ignore. Here's the full picture:

Artist Compensation That's Almost Insulting: Spotify pays artists roughly $0.003 to $0.005 per stream. To put that in perspective, an artist needs about 250,000 streams just to earn minimum wage for one month. We built our playlist candle business around celebrating and supporting musicians, so how could we continue using a platform that treats them as an afterthought?

The Rise of Fake AI Music: Spotify's platform has become flooded with AI-generated tracks designed purely to capture streaming revenue without any human creativity behind them. These algorithmic compositions are displacing real artists in playlists and recommendations, creating a race to the bottom where authentic music competes with content created solely for profit extraction. Gross.

Investments in Warfare Technology: Here's where things get really dark: Spotify CEO Daniel Ek has invested heavily in AI defense technology through his company Prima Materia, specifically funding companies that develop autonomous weapons systems and military AI. When you stream on Spotify, a portion of your subscription fee and ad revenue ultimately flows toward funding drone warfare and military technologies used in conflicts around the world, including ongoing genocides.

Like many of the artists we love, we couldn't reconcile curating playlists on a platform whose profits help fund violence. Shoutout to deerhoof (can't wait to see you in KC soon).

Tidal isn't perfect, but...

So, let's be clear: Tidal isn't perfect. No ethical billionaires exist, and Jay-Z's involvement means we're still dealing with concentrated wealth and power. But when we compared the available options, Tidal felt like least problematic choice. Here are the positives:

Artist-First $$$: Tidal pays artists 3-5 times more per stream than Spotify, roughly $0.01 to $0.015 per play. While still not ideal, it's a significant improvement that puts more money directly into musicians' pockets. They also offer direct fan-to-artist payment options and exclusive content deals that give artists more control over their revenue streams. 

Music Over Missiles: Tidal's business model focuses on high-fidelity audio and supporting artists, not diversifying into military technology. Our subscription goes toward music infrastructure, not weapons development.

Transparency & Artist Ownership: Tidal has made efforts to increase transparency around streaming payouts and has positioned itself as artist-owned (though the current ownership structure through Block, Inc. is more complex). They've consistently advocated for better artist compensation across the industry.

The lesser evil?

We researched every major platform and some smaller options as well before making this decision:

• Apple Music pays artists better than Spotify but comes with all the ethical baggage of Apple's supply chain and market dominance. Not to mention Tim Cook bowing down to Trump with that fake gold glass whatever.
• YouTube Music is Google, and we all know how that goes with data privacy and crushing smaller competitors
• Amazon Music supports one of the world's most exploitative corporations. Sorry, Jeff. Never gonna happen.
• Bandcamp is great for direct artist support but lacks the playlist functionality our candle concept requires

None of these options are perfect. We're operating in a system where ethical consumption under capitalism is nearly impossible. But that doesn't mean all choices are equivalent, some platforms align more closely with our values than others.

Full Analog?

Look, we still buy vinyl, CDs, and support artists through Bandcamp and direct sales whenever possible. Physical media will always be the gold standard for actually supporting musicians and your local music stores. But here's the thing, our playlist candles are about creating an immediate, accessible experience. When someone lights a candle, they want to scan that QR code and instantly dive into the carefully curated mood we've created. That immediacy and convenience is part of what makes the whole experience work.

We're never going to abandon physical media, we're just acknowledging that streaming serves a different purpose in how people discover and experience music with our products.

Okay, so what?!

For Our Existing Customers: Unfortunately, all existing label QR codes can't be updated remotely. Ugh, this is one of those small business learning moments that feels pretty big right now. Your Spotify links will remain active for another 60 days while we transition. We're providing new labels to our retail partners and have made all our Tidal playlists public. 

For New Releases: All future playlist candles will feature Tidal QR links exclusively. While the playlists themselves will be on Tidal, individual tracks from our candle curations can be opened on other streaming platforms through Tidal's universal linking feature, so you can still discover the music even if you prefer Spotify or Apple Music.

For Our Wholesale Partners: We're working with our retail partners to provide updated labels and talking points to help explain this transition to their customers. 

We're music groupies.

This decision reflects our broader commitment to operating as the kind of business we'd want to support. It's messy, imperfect, and occasionally inconvenient, just like most lesser of several-many evils choices under capitalism.

We know some of you will stick with Spotify, and that's totally okay. We get it. Switching platforms is annoying, and maybe our reasoning doesn't resonate with your priorities. What matters to us is being transparent about our decision-making process and taking responsibility for the impact of our business choices.

The music industry has massive systemic problems that won't be solved by one small candle company switching streaming platforms. But every business decision is a vote for the kind of world we want to participate in. We're choosing to vote for platforms that prioritize artists over algorithms and music over missiles.

We wanna know. Have you made the switch from Spotify? What platform are you using and why? 

P.S. Good news! We've upgraded to editable QR codes for all future releases. If a better platform comes along, we can all make the switch without the hassle.