Spotify, AI Killer Drones, and the Protest App That Hit #1

This is the story of how our Head of Innovation, Trav, built a satirical fitness app in response to Daniel Ek’s $1 billion military funding, hit #1 on Product Hunt, and (unsurprisingly) didn’t get the green light from Spotify.

About five months ago, Spotify’s CEO Daniel Ek invested roughly $1 billion into Helsing, an AI military weapons company.

Spotify isn’t exactly new to screwing people over. They’ve been underpaying artists and monopolising music for years. But this was something else – a leap from juicing the magic of human creativity to bankrolling mass military violence…

For Trav – a music obsessive, a peace advocate, and a builder of weird apps that scratch at his brain – Ek’s move hit harder than most. Calling it disappointing would be an undersell. This one was straight-up dystopian.

So Trav did what Trav does best. He built something.

Setting the scene

Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify, drops $1 billion into an AI warfare company – money pulled from the pockets of nearly 700 million music listeners and the backs of mostly starving artists. Trav is pissed. And somehow, barely anyone’s talking about it? 

The decision itself is hard to stomach. On one hand, sure, maybe we aren’t “entitled” to tell one billionaire what to do with his wealth. But when that wealth is fuelled by the monthly payments  and ad revenue of hundreds of millions of people – all of which share one common interest in music – doesn’t some ethical responsibility come with that? Shouldn’t those funds circle back into the ecosystem that makes Spotify possible in the first place? 

Apparently not. Instead of compensating artists fairly, Spotify decided to double down on its treachery and funnel billions into war-fuelling tech. 

So, Trav got an idea. And in protest, he declared his own small war. A letter to Daniel Ek, calling out the absurdity and the betrayal of his investment. 

Enter, Musical Drones

It’s not often you see Trav get angry. In fact, this might actually be his first time. Unfortunately for Daniel Ek – angry Trav built Musical Drones. A satirical fitness app that makes you run from AI killer drones and feel the impact of your Spotify subscription in real time.

The idea is brutally simple. Start running and your playlist kicks in like normal. But slow down and the soundtrack collapses into alarms, sirens, and the whine of drones closing in. Stop altogether and you’re identified, hunted, and eliminated. Music on your run becomes a luxury afforded only by your best efforts. 

But it gets better. Musical Drones pulls directly from your Spotify playlists, forcing you to confront the fact that the same money fuelling your music is also fuelling autonomous weapons. Suddenly the connection isn’t so abstract. You’re living it, and you’re running from it.

As Trav puts it – “We’ve all accepted that the tools we use daily – recommendation engines, facial recognition, location tracking – are being co-opted by big tech for purposes that are totally out of our control. But most of us don’t feel it. Not really. Not viscerally. “

Well, now you can.

Take it away, Trav!

Then what happened?

Musical Drones skyrocketed to the number one trending app on Product Hunt, beating out DeepSeek.AI v3 and a stack of other heavyweights.

It was then formally approved by the Apple App Store – which, in all honesty, we weren’t sure would happen. Tech giants tend to look out for one another, scratching each other’s backs for the(ir) greater good. But Apple let it through. Kudos to them. 

With approval in place, the app started building momentum – gaining users and shining a spotlight on the severity of Spotify’s actions. There was just one last domino to fall.

Spotify. Would they back it?

Not quite.

Turns out, they weren’t interested in a business partnership with the very app exposing their frontman’s… questionable investment decisions. Shock. 

At least they had the courtesy to reply. Their email was polite, corporate, and sterile – basically explaining that Musical Drones doesn’t meet their “business criteria.”

In other words, “Thanks, but we don’t support satire that points out our billionaire founder invested a billion dollars into killer robots.”

Fair enough. We won’t be supporting theirs either.

The return of Soundcloud

Musical Drones was a protest against war, against the exploitation of artists, against the dystopian grip billionaires hold over society. And, ultimately, against Spotify, which now embodies all of the above.

Spotify’s been playing dirty for years, but Daniel Ek’s $1 billion investment into AI warfare makes their intent (or lack thereof)  impossible to ignore. 

Trav built Musical Drones because he was tired of watching artists scrape by while tech giants turn creativity into profit, then funnel that profit into weapons designed to end lives. More simply put, because he was pissed off that his Willie Nelson streams were being turned into AI killer drones.

That’s why we’ve cancelled our subscription. If you believe music should never be weaponised, maybe it’s time you did too. For what it’s worth, Soundcloud isn’t too bad. 

And if you’re training for your next marathon, well then, Musical Drones awaits you on the App Store.