Hello, Laurence & Lindsay here. We've got a big problem, and we need your help. If you're listening to this on Spotify, we're asking you to stop, and switch to another podcast player. As I'm sure most of you know, there's plenty of evidence that Spotify is a terrible company with a long history of exploiting and underpaying artists, but that's only part of why it's so bad. It's been reported that Spotify's CEO, Daniel Ek, has recently invested millions of Euros of your subscription fees in an AI weaponry company called Helsing. This company has developed an automated target identification system, with the option to keep a human in the loop. In other words, it's machines selecting which humans to kill on the battlefield. It's also been reported Spotify donated $150,000 to the Trump campaign, and it's recently been running ICE recruitment ads. It is a powerful force for bad. So here's our problem. Almost half of our total listenership comes from Spotify, and the adverts that we run are how we make our money. If we just pulled our podcasts straight away, that would be a huge financial blow for us. So we would like to urge you to listen elsewhere, on another podcast player. Lots of people recommend one called Pocket Casts, we've also heard good things about Podcast Addict. In the last month, we've had downloads from about 50 different podcast players, so there are plenty of alternatives. We've going to take our podcasts off Spotify as soon as it becomes clear that there is a real movement to cancel Spotify subscriptions and move to other platforms, and that movement is growing. For you, thankfully, this doesn't cost anything. Podcasts are, and will always be, free to listen to on any platform. Like we said, a lot of people seem to like Pocket Casts, and as far as we know, they're not evil. There are also a ton of others to choose from - all very accessible, and all free. If you've ever enjoyed our podcasts, or you're about to discover them, thank you so much for listening. Let's try and do the right thing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
