Spotify has faced consistent criticism since its 2009 launch – from poor pay for creators to its founder’s links to military technology.
So how ethical is Spotify, and should we boycott the brand?
Since 1989 we've been researching and recording the social and environmental records of companies, and making the results available to you in a simple format.
Learn more about our company profiles →Our research identified multiple ethical issues with Spotify, including likely tax avoidance, poor pay to artists for their work, and criticism during Covid-19 over platforming anti-vaccine misinformation.
Below we outline some of these issues. To see the full detailed stories, and Spotify’s overall ethical rating, please sign in or subscribe.
In February 2026, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) – a campaign led by Palestinian civil society groups – accused Spotify of “complicity in Israeli apartheid” and declared its support for a boycott of the platform.
The group pointed out that in 2019, Spotify signed a multi-year deal with Partner Communications Company Ltd, an Israeli telecommunications company. Partner Communications has been named by the United Nations for being involved in illegal Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land.
The Israeli government has supported the construction of hundreds of settlements on Palestinian land, forcibly displacing Palestinian populations. The settlements have been declared illegal by the United Nations, and are considered a key component of the state’s occupation.
PACBI also pointed to allegations that Spotify had run ads for jobs in Israel’s prison service, recruiting armed units. “Israeli prisons and detention centers have increased the widespread and systemic use of physical torture, psychological abuse, inhumane detention conditions, and sexual violence against Palestinian political prisoners,” it said.
In October 2025, the Los Angeles Times reported that platforms including Spotify were streaming adverts for ICE – the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, which has been accused of multiple human rights violations.
The agency is at the centre of president Donald Trump’s aggressive deportation policy, and has faced widespread criticism including after taking a 5-year-old child into custody in an attempt to force his father to submit himself to authorities. Six people died during ICE operations in January 2026 alone. ICE agents shot two separate unarmed individuals in the street in Minneapolis, sparking days of protest across the country.
The Spotify ads urged listeners to “Join the mission to protect America”, according to the Los Angeles Times.
At the time, a Spotify spokesperson told the outlet, “The content does not violate our advertising policies.” In January, it stated that the ads had stopped running at the end of 2025.
In 2025, Spotify’s founder and former-CEO Daniel Ek led a €600m (£520m) funding drive for a military tech startup, Helsing. The company sells software that uses AI technology to analyse data from battlefields for assistance in military decisions, as well as making military drones.
Ek’s venture capital firm Prima Materia led the funding round. At the time, Ek was still CEO of Spotify, as well as chairman for the military tech firm.
Artists including Massive Attack and King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard quit the platform in protest over the investments.
Announcing its boycott in September 2025, Massive Attack wrote: “the economic burden that has long been placed on artists is now compounded by a moral and ethical burden, whereby the hard-earned money of fans and the creative endeavours of musicians ultimately funds lethal, dystopian technologies.”
Spotify has emphasised that “Spotify and Helsing are two totally separate companies.”
After rumours spread online that Helsing was supplying arms to Israel, a Spotify spokesperson also clarified that Helsing was “not involved in Gaza”. In response, BDS stated, “Helsing has direct contracts with multiple international arms companies that are complicit in genocidal Israel’s regime of apartheid and military occupation, including Rheinmetall, Saab and Airbus.”
Spotify has consistently been criticised for its poor remuneration of artists for the music on its platform.
Most large streaming apps do not pay artists per stream of their songs. Instead, Spotify and others use a so-called “pro rata” or “market share” payment system. The streaming platform aggregates all revenue from subscriptions and advertising. It then takes a reported 30% cut from the pot for its own revenues, and splits the rest between whoever owns the rights to the music (usually the record label, not the artist), based on their market shares.
The problem with the model is that it massively favours superstars: the top 1% of creators receive 90% of streams, and therefore get the lion’s share of the available revenue. This means that niche and independent artists effectively subsidise the biggest artists.
Spotify does not appear to have taken any meaningful steps to address this problem, and therefore scored very poorly in Ethical Consumer’s rating for artist compensation.
Despite being based in Sweden, Spotify is registered in Luxembourg – a tax haven – making it high risk for use of tax avoidance strategies.
The company does not appear to have published any statements or country-by-country reporting (a financial breakdown by region) to show that it is paying its fair share of tax.
Well-known artists including Neil Young and Joni Mitchell boycotted Spotify during the Covid-19 pandemic over the streaming of anti-vaccine misinformation through the platform. Complaints focused on Spotify’s deal with podcaster Joe Rogan – whose show is the number one most streamed podcast on the site.
In 2022, Rogan invited Dr Robert Malone onto the podcast, a scientist who had been banned from Twitter at the time for spreading Covid-19 misinformation. During the episode both Malone and Rogan made baseless claims about Covid-19, with Malone stating that world leaders had hypnotised the public into supporting vaccines.
At the time, Spotify held a deal with Rogan – who interviews everyone from well-known celebrities to conspiracy theorists on his podcast – to exclusively stream his show. Rogan defended the podcast stating: "I'm not trying to promote misinformation. I'm not trying to be controversial.
The boycott ended in 2024, when Rogan signed a $250m deal to make his podcast available on multiple platforms, rather than exclusive to Spotify. Neil Young, who had led the boycott, stated that it was no longer possible to avoid companies platforming Rogan, re-adding his music to the platform.
The text above was written in February 2026, and most research was conducted in August/September 2025.
We always check the ethics of our advertisers
Sign up to see the full company profile including company ethiscores and all the stories behind the scores.