The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph

Are more bands starting to boycott streaming? Godspeed You! Black Emperor have removed their music from streaming services

As of April 2026, Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s music is unavailable to stream on major music streaming services.

In August 2025, the Canadian Post-Rock band Godspeed You! Black Emperor removed all their music from major streaming services, including Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, and Amazon Music. Their music is available to buy digitally, on CD, or on Vinyl via Bandcamp, which is a service that allows independent music acts to distribute their music strictly under their own control.

At the time of writing, there is still no direct comment from the band currently as to why they have pulled their music from major streaming services. However, according to Pitchfork, the decision comes after artists like Deerhoof, Xiu Xiu, and King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard also removed their music from the platform. All three groups cited the military investments made by Spotify CEO Daniel Ek through his investment fund Prima Materia. Since 2021, Prima Materia has been investing in Helsing, a defence company that sells software that uses AI to inform military decisions.

Despite a lack of comments from the band themselves, it would be no surprise if Godspeed You! Black Emperor have pulled their music from streaming services for political reasons. Their most recent project “NO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024 28,340 DEAD” signifies the number of people killed in the genocide in Gaza at the time of the album’s release. This provides evidence of the band’s left-wing political stance. Godspeed You! Black Emperor are known for protesting war in their music and in their live shows, for example, in their song “The Dead Flag Blues”, which features a spoken-word intro depicting a dystopian state, acting as a criticism of the decline of the American state.

The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph

The revolution against Spotify? Godspeed You! Black Emperor set an example for how more artists and bands should be challenging the broken streaming system.

In August 2025, post-rock giants ‘Godspeed You! Black Emperor’ removed their music from streaming platforms without a statement. All their music is now exclusively available on Bandcamp, where you can purchase their music digitally, and on vinyl/CD. However, it is becoming increasingly obvious that more artists should be moving to smaller platforms like Bandcamp to create an authentic growth in their fanbase, and Godspeed You! Black Emperor are role models for how new bands and artists can do this, as they are already popular and they do not need to think about how they promote their music, yet they still choose to boycott streaming services.

Although Spotify is commonly known as the most used streaming service, artists are struggling to be heard and earn themselves listeners. The more that music becomes oversaturated and the more that Spotify pushes music with at least tens of thousands of streams, the harder it becomes for new artists. This is evident, as according to Chartmetric, only 66k artists out of the 10 million on Spotify made over $10,000 in 2023. However, Bandcamp is a place where passionate music enjoyers find new music and is designed for underground music to be heard. Also, as there is significantly less music on the platform, there is a bigger chance of someone finding your music within all the noise. Additionally, you can make the choice to charge people for your music. According to Madelyn Read, a folk artist from the US, Spotify famously only pays about 1/3 of a cent per stream, and that’s only if your track is streamed over 1,000 times in a year. According to Chartmetric, 80% of artists never hit 1,000 monthly listeners in 2023. Therefore, are 80% of artists even being paid by Spotify? However, on Bandcamp, the world is yours with how you can market your music. For example, you can sell a song at a price as a limited-edition song and announce that “the first 100 people to buy this song can hear it, after that it’s gone”. Charge £1 for the song, and you’ve made 100 times more money than you would’ve made on Spotify. Bandcamp also provides a platform for people to buy CDs, vinyl and merch off you, which means you can use it as your own shop as well as a streaming platform.

There are counter arguments to be had to this. For example, does the average person use Bandcamp? Maybe not. Would the average person install Bandcamp to hear your music? Maybe not. However, if you want to target real ‘superfans’, less ‘superfans’ are finding underground music on Spotify. There is also an argument to be had that if you’re good enough at marketing and your music is good, getting heard on streaming services shouldn’t be a problem. This may be true, but the gap between getting heard and getting paid on Spotify is becoming growingly ambiguous.

The Guardian

Morphide: The whole writing experience is very satisfying. Creating something out of nothing is an inspiring process on its own.

Some musicians view what they do as simply employment. The Latvian Metal duo Morphide write music out of pure passion and love for what they do. This results in a refreshing, sensational sound. Hailing from Latvia, making it as a metal band was never going to be easy. However, Eissa (Vocals) and Chris (Guitar and production) are a clear example of what you can do with drive and determination.

When speaking about their home country, Eissa told us that “There are just not enough people in Latvia to push this music through”. However, Morphide prove that having privilege in coming from a place with a booming music scene is something of a misnomer; all you need is the desire to create music.

Eissa shares the human experience of lacking motivation, which is a problem that all musicians have expressed feelings of before. Eissa stated that: “there are days where it completely doesn’t work, and you just close you PC with nothing. But there are days when the so-called inspiration comes to you in the writing process, and then you are flying out there in this creative space that you just created, so all of that is inspiring on its own.” Plenty of musicians talk about how enjoyable the songwriting process can be, but Morphide’s process appears more emotional. Chris told us his perspective; “When I listen to a song or band that really moves me and makes me feel, I think the whole experience affects me in a certain way, and it’s so powerful and special.”

Three months ago, Morphide released their second album, “Mental” which has been picking up rampant popularity since its release. Chris told us that “The whole thing that started “Mental” and the whole concept was our experience during the pandemic, because we were quite burnt out and we weren’t in the best place.” Unsurprisingly, these feelings turned into a crushing, angsty statement of an album.

“Mental” demonstrated a significant shift in their songwriting process compared to their first album. “The big difference between our first album and “Mental”, was that every song was structured to convey some kind of feeling, emotion or state,” Eissa revealed. There is no doubt that the two albums represent a state of transition, as the two musicians had a more focused concept for what they were trying to create.

“With some songs, we had vocals that we had to rewrite completely because they weren’t reflecting the mood that we wanted,” Eissa told us. This symbolises a new method of writing songs for the band, as the atmosphere of the song was already decided before writing the lyrics of the song, therefore providing a critical focus. However, having to ‘rewrite songs’ makes this a double-edged sword, when considering setbacks in the songwriting process.

Chris’s more prominent role in the production of “Mental” also supports the tight conceptual visions from the duo. Chris commented that “in the modern age, I think production can be considered as a separate instrument; it makes the song.”

Metal music has been male dominated for decades, but now the genre is moving into a great place where women in metal are becoming more popular. However, Eissa expresses some frustrations that things still need to change. She told us; “I’m not a fan of the term ‘female-fronted’, because there’s no ‘male-fronted’ term so why put it in a category? So, if we do modern metal, we do modern metal not female fronted metal”

Additionally, she told us; “I have had experiences of people saying, “women should not be screaming, that’s a male thing”. I don’t care, and I’m very passionate about this. They have their right not to enjoy it, but I have my right to be on the stage, and generally I would say I’ve had a more positive than negative experience.”

So, when listening to Morphide, what should we take away from the music? Eissa highlighted her intentions: “Sometimes, you feel bad. But it gets worse when you think you are the only one in the world who feels those problems. You feel like everyone is so happy and everyone has their stuff figured out, and that you are the only one who is a failure. That is so not true, because in a way we are all so crazy and have our own problems. I wanted to let people know that yes, it may be super hard, and you might be super tired and exhausted, but you are not alone, and this will pass. That is how life works.”

With that sentiment lingering, the band had one final message for us:

“’Mental’ is a dark album I would say, and it’s heavy, but I think listening to it and really feeling these feelings is important. It’s about how you process them. The more you feel those sad vibes, the less it starts feeling so sad. So, I would like people to keep listening to music, finding peace in it, moving on, and finding something in it that excites them.”

The Guardian

Album Review: Porcupine Tree – Deadwing

Experience intensity and tranquillity in its purest Progressive Rock form in Porcupine Tree’s radiant album “Deadwing”

“Deadwing” is the eighth studio album by progressive rock giants Porcupine Tree, and before listening, the album cover implies feelings of loneliness, as a silhouette is seen standing alone looking out across the waters. Steven Wilson (founder of Porcupine Tree) based this album off a film script he wrote with Mike Bennion, as it follows a narrative ghost story focusing on loss, religion, fear and madness. Wilson succeeds in using a range in dynamics and instrumentation to support the images created by the narrative, with a mix of heavy rock, soft rock, and dreampop styles used. “Deadwing” sits nicely in Porcupine Tree’s peak of creativity in the 2000s and brings a breath of fresh air thirty years after the peak of progressive rock.

Feeling lost, fear, and hopelessness are all vulnerable feelings portrayed in the titled track. It is an ambitious ten-minutes long, and demonstrates a heavier style, split up by an ambient section halfway through the song to create a structure with three major sections. The intensity of the story is backed by Wilson’s use of the Dorian mode and chromatic harmony to create colour and ambiguity.

“Follow me down to the valley below”

The story of a mother losing her child on “Lazarus” became one of Porcupine Tree’s finest ballads. “Lazarus” shifts the focus to acoustic guitar and piano, to create a softer environment for the mother to talk to her son back from the grave.

“My David don’t you worry, this cold world is not for you”

“Arriving Somewhere But Not Here” is the pivotal point in the album, as everything leads up to and resolves from this song. The song itself is a mountain structure of emotion, with the middle section being the heaviest part of the whole album, implying a climax in the story.

“Ever had the feeling you’ve been here before”

As the music lifts the story further, the narrative reaches a climax as we found out about the protagonist’s death. The use of extended chords and Dorian harmony relates back to the titled track.

As the album closes, peace and tranquillity are back in the forefront with “Glass Arm Shattering”. Wilson pays tribute to the Dreampop style with synthesisers and layered vocals being more prominent, and a simpler lyrical structure (all the lines start with either ‘feeling’ or ‘seen it’ in a strong use of Anaphora).

This album makes you think. It allows you to be in touch with your inner-most emotions, as the anger and the sadness in this narrative washes over you. Don’t listen to “Deadwing” in a busy environment. Allow yourself to be alone.