Spotify Addresses King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard AI Slop “Cover Band”

The KGATLW catalogue takedown reveals deeper cracks in Spotify’s AI policies

Australian psych-rock giants King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard recently made headlines as one of the many artists pulling their catalogue from Spotify in protest of the CEO’s shady investments in AI-powered drone warfare, stating: “Can we put pressure on the Dr Evil tech bros to do better?” In doing so, they’ve unintentionally highlighted one of the biggest emerging issues in Spotify’s music ecosystem.

Read our opinion piece on King Gizzard’s innovative Bandcamp pricing model.

In typical Spotify fashion, AI slop immediately jumped in to fill the gaping void left by the band, with an act named “King Lizard Wizard” releasing a number of tracks, all sharing titles with KGATLW songs and generally following the band’s formulas, even copying lyrics. Spotify has since taken down the artist page, but only after huge fan backlash, clearly showing that the platform does little to filter these acts before they go live.

Combine this with the rising number of AI-generated artists being pushed into Spotify-curated playlists and rumours that streaming companies are doing so intentionally to reduce royalty payouts, it gets harder not to picture a grim future for music.

KGATLW frontman Stu Mackenzie put it best when asked about the situation: “But seriously, wtf we are truly doomed.” For a band that once imagined an altered future where a cyborg spews endless vomit, even they couldn’t foresee the artificial bile piling up this quickly.