Over 100 artists sign open letter to Spotify protesting speech-monitoring recommendation system

Spotify's speech-monitoring technology can reportedly monitor and record speech and background noise to make personalised music recommendations to users, and after Spotify filed a patent for the technology in 2018, the United States Patent And Trademark Office (USPTO), according to MusicTech, approved the patent in January this year.

Earlier this week over 100 artists signed an open letter addressed to Spotify founder/CEO Daniel Ek. The letter, signed by artists including DIIV, Tom Morello, Anjimile, A.O. Gerber, Illuminati Hotties, Kindness, Laura Jane Grace, of Montreal, Talib Kweli and many more, stated that they are "deeply alarmed" at the technology that can monitor private conversations, and added, "This recommendation technology is dangerous, a violation of privacy and other human rights, and should not be implemented by Spotify or any other company."

The letter listed concerns with the speech-monitoring technology including emotional manipulation, discrimination, privacy violations, data security and the potential to exacerbate inequality in the music industry.

Spotify had previously been called out on the same technology at the start of April, and the letter states that Spotify replied by 15 April, "stating that the company "has never implemented the technology described in the patent in any of our products and we have no plans to do so"."

The letter adds, "While we are pleased to hear that Spotify has no current plans to deploy the technology, it begs the question: why are you exploring its use? We call on your company to make a public commitment to never use, license, sell, or monetise the recommendation technology. Even if Spotify doesn’t use it, your company could profit from the surveillance tool if another entity deploys it. Any use of this technology is unacceptable."