Users across Reddit, TikTok, and Spotify’s own community forums began posting that they had heard audio spots recruiting for ICE while listening to music or podcasts on Spotify. One user described hearing:

According to The Independent, “millions of dangerous illegals are rampaging the streets. Join ICE today.” 

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Another user, based in the UK, reported hearing the ad during a UK-based podcast and felt it was deeply offensive and inappropriate for a non-U.S. audience. Spotify responded by acknowledging the ads: “This advertisement is part of a broad campaign the U.S. Government is running across television, streaming and online channels… The content does not violate our advertising policies.”

Many listeners objected to the aggressive, militaristic tone of the ads, which frame immigrants or “illegals” as threats and promote ICE in strongly patriotic terms. This was seen as dehumanising and polarising. Some users argue that Spotify should not host ads spreading political propaganda or recruitment drives for a law-enforcement / immigration-enforcement body, especially given the global nature of the platform and the scale of the audience. Independent record labels such as ANTI‑ Records and Epitaph Records publicly called on Spotify to remove the ICE ads, stating that “artists and fans deserve platforms that reflect the values of the culture they sustain.”

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The controversy raises questions about how streaming platforms vet advertising content and whether they should apply different ethical standards when serving ads for government agencies. While advertising for job recruitment is common, in this case the messaging is charged with immigration-enforcement, nationalism and a heavy “us-versus-them” framing, which makes it more than a benign job listing.

Spotify has stated that the ads comply with its advertising policies and that users can provide feedback (thumbs up/thumbs down) on individual ads. However, the company has so far refused to remove the ICE recruitment ads despite mounting pressure, once again proving that ethical business practices are not a priority at Spotify.

The government’s Creator Renumeration Working Group (CRWG), chaired by Minister for Creative Industries, Arts, and Tourism Chris Bryant, met representatives from Universal Music, the Musicians’ Union, YouTube, Music Publishers Association, Spotify, BPI and Music Managers Forum.

Bryant reposted a post on X from trade association UK Music showing the meeting. “UK Music’s Chief Executive Tom Kiehl participated in a roundtable discussion with DCMS Minister Chris Bryant, UK Music members & other music industry trade bodies to talk about how the new government could support the music industry,” the post says.

UK Music’s Chief Executive @Tomkiehl participated in a roundtable discussion with @DCMS Minister @RhonddaBryant, UK Music members & other music industry trade bodies to talk about how the new government could support the music industry. pic.twitter.com/aWWpSfqZvY

— UK Music (@UK_Music) July 25, 2024

A considerable number of artists including David Byrne and Neil Young have had long-standing feuds with Spotify, and many more have spoken out against the increasingly small amount they are able to earn from their music being streamed on the service, as well as rivals like YouTube. Most notable among these artists are Taylor Swift and Thom Yorke, who both temporarily removed their music from Spotify, as well as a collection of songwriters behind chart-topping songs who drew attention to the issue in a video posted to social media in February.

Despite ongoing negative press surrounding artist renumeration, Spotify remains coy about its policy towards the compensation of artists. The company says only that “Spotify does not pay artist royalties according to a per-play or per-stream rate; the royalty payments that artists receive might vary according to differences in how their music is streamed or the agreements they have with labels or distributors.”

Spotify says it distributes approximately 70% of its total revenue to rights-holders, who will then pay artists based on their individual agreements. Under this system, smaller and independent artists with fewer legal and managerial resources are at a distinct disadvantage.

In October 2020, the DCMS launched an inquiry into the economics of music streaming and submitted a report with its recommendations to the government on 15 July 2021. These recommendations concerned the use of metadata by streaming services, as well as transparency in royalty policies, as well as creator remuneration.

Earlier this year the committee said it had “made good progress on industry-wide solutions to both the metadata and transparency issues,” but this week’s meeting appears to be the biggest step yet taken towards addressing long-standing grievances from artists about fair pay for their work.

Whereas some people are taking their music off the platform, The Pocket Gods are going to do the opposite, by releasing a new album made of 1,000 tracks. You might think that’s a good thing for Spotify – the more music the merrier. But loopholes being loopholes, they know what they’re doing.

excited doing an interview with the I newspaper this afternoon about our 1000×30 album and campaign for fairer royalties from music streaming (and er Spotify)

— Mark Christopher Lee (@thepocketgod) January 31, 2022

Each track will be around the thirty-second mark in length. The act is in reference to how Spotify’s streaming model works. A stream is counted after a track has been played for 30 seconds, without which no revenue is generated. Inspired by an article from New York professor Mike Errico, which argued that this model will be the death knell of the three-minute pop song, The Pocket Gods began wondering why they bother with the rest of a song if all the money is in the beginning.

The Pocket Gods’ Mark Lee said “I saw the article and it made me think, ‘Why write longer songs when we get paid little enough for just 30 seconds?’“ The act is also meant to raise awareness for how little the service pays the artists who make the music it shares, with The Pocket Gods saying they receive 0.002p per stream. One song on the new album is called “0.002“ in reference to this. Lee said, “We used to get 0.007p a play, still a pittance but that seems to have been cut since Spotify bought the Joe Rogan Experience podcast for $100m.“

On Sky news this morning xx pic.twitter.com/PXkkdcibtB — Mark Christopher Lee (@thepocketgod) February 5, 2022

Despite his dislike for some aspects of streaming, Lee does concede that “Spotify is a great musical resource and it allows indie bands like us to upload our music without record companies“. As for Joe Rogan, he has no plans anytime soon to join Neil Young and his boycott, explaining “I also believe in free speech even though I’m a massive Neil Young fan so I don’t support the boycott. We just want to raise awareness of the royalties issue.“

If you’re a fan of long albums then you’re in for a good time. The 1000-track release will be called 1000×30 – Nobody Makes Money Anymore. It’s out next Friday and will almost definitely be available for Spotify streaming. An album with 1,000 songs is sure to have something worthwhile at any rate.