Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by ratwhiskers

paper aviator

@paperaviator.bsky.social

hey i made an zine about spotify's sins, inspired by @glasse.bsky.social's spotify bio

if you want to print some, DM and i'll send you the file!

SPOTIFY SUCKS and how you can better support your favorite artists

Lineal by Frank Adebiaye, with the contribution of Anton Moglia, Ariel Martín Pérez. Distributed by velvetyne.fr.

Karrik by Jean-Baptiste Morizot, Lucas Le Bihan. Distributed by velvetyne.fr.

SOURCES:
Herstand, Ari. “Takedown Fails: Artists Are Seeing Their Music Removed From DSPs for Streaming Fraud They Didn’t Commit.” Variety, 12 Apr. 2024.

Krukowski, Damon. “Solidarity.” Dada Drummer Almanach, 3 Oct. 2023,

Krukowski, Damon. ”Spotify made £56m profit, but has decided not to pay smaller artists like me.” The Gaurdian, 30 Nov 2023.

Lopatto, Elizabeth. “Not Even Spotify Is Safe From AI Slop.” The Verge, 14 Nov. 2024

Maddaus, Gene. “Variety.” Variety, 4 Sept. 2024.

Omarji, Sophia. “I Was Laid off From Spotify After Moving to Sweden for the Job. I Had to Leave the Entire Life I Built Behind and Am Still Looking for Work.” Business Insider, 31 Jan. 2025

Pelly, Liz. “The Ghosts in the Machine.” Harper’s Magazine.

Starvos, Jennifer . “How Spotify Is Quietly Supporting the Military-Industrial Complex.” In These Times, 10 Mar. 2022.

Willings, Sam. “Daniel Ek Earned More From Spotify in the Past 12 Months Than Any Artist Has Ever Earned on the Platform.” MusicTech, 5 Aug. 2024

SPOTIFY PAYS VERY LITTLE (if at all)

Spotify pays a measly $0.003 per stream!

You’d need 406,000 plays/month just to make the national minimum wage—assuming you publish your own music and don’t have a record label to do that for you, because labels typically take 50-90% of your royalties!

Besides, minimum wage is still TOO LOW to live comfortably!

For smaller artists, any music that does not achieve 1,000 streams in a year will not receive any royalties at all (Krukowski).

FAKE ARTISTS

Most Spotify users rely on Spotify’s curated mood playlists (e.g.“Ambient Relaxation” and “Bossa Nova Dinner”) as background music.

So Spotify figured users wouldn’t notice if they replaced the REAL music by REAL musicians in those playlists with FILLER music under FAKE artists’ profiles, so they don’t have to pay royalties to the real artists.

This filler music, called “Perfect Fit Content,” consists of mass-produced stock music commissioned from a handful of anonymous musicians that Spotify completely owns and profits off of. These tracks receive millions of plays that could have gone to real, working musicians (Pelly).

There’s a plethora of problems regarding AI and Fraud on Spotify:

Fake AI-generated albums are put under real artists’ profiles, which fraudsters profit off of. The real artists can do little to stop this. (Lopatto)

Many artists have been the victims of unwanted artificial plays, including many artists I know: artists’ music is mysteriously flagged for artificial plays, and the artist is forced to remove the song/album or face a fine or even be banned from the platform (Herstand).

There’s also nothing stopping people from just uploading AI-generated music (made from huge libraries of copyrighted music) and profiting off it.

AI itself has way more problems to unpack, which could be its very own zine…

SPOTIFY SUPPORTS THE MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

Prima Materia, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek’s investment company, had invested €100 million ($114 million USD) in Helsing, a German defence tech company that has developed military drones and AI software to aid in military operations. (Starvos).

WHAT YOU CAN DO

It’s clear that Spotify does not actually care about the livelihoods of musicians.

CEO Daniel Ek infamously tweeted that “the cost of creating content” (i.e. music) is “close to zero.” Sure, I guess the hours, experience, equipment, etc. to make music is worth nothing!

Meanwhile, Ek made 345 million dollars last year (Willings), while laying off 17% of their workers in 2023 (Omarji).

Support your favorite artists more directly by buying their music on services like Bandcamp and iTunes.

Digital albums typically cost $5-10, and your purchase will have a bigger impact than your streams ever will. And can listen to them FOREVER!

At $12/mo., if you only use Spotify to stream the same few albums, you’ll save money in the long run if you just buy the albums.

Buy CDs, vinyls, and other merch! Support your local music stores!

Switch to a better streaming platform like Tidal or Apple Music. Tidal pays the highest, paying an average of $0.013/stream—that’s over 4 times more than Spotify’s average. They can pay up to $0.05/stream ! Apple music falls just behind, paying $0.007-$0.01/stream on average.

Musicians cannot strike or organize a boycott on Spotify without being sued under antitrust laws, since the musicians are considered independent contractors, while Spotify is the “customer” (Krukowski).

Tell your representatives to support the Protect Working Musicians Act, which would allow independent musicians to organize and fight back!

Join/Donate to the United Musicians and Allied Workers who are fighting to regulate streaming, restrict AI, eliminate Ticketmaster and Live Nation, and more!

February 20, 2025 at 7:43 PM

Reposted by ratwhiskers

clover ♧ 🔞

@clover-nsfw.bsky.social

noticed that youtube seems to have extended their "AI summary" "feature" to more (all?) videos, so here's a little something for ublock

www.reddit.com/r/youtube/co...

remove the A I video summary generation

www.reddit.com

November 22, 2025 at 11:59 PM

Reposted by ratwhiskers

Edrobot

@edrobot.bsky.social

I hate how everything bad in the US, no matter how small or arbitrary, ends up boiling down to some combination of capitalism, sexism and racism.

November 22, 2025 at 6:13 PM

Reposted by ratwhiskers

Radiant G🌈✨ @ Con Zero TTRPG Improv Show Host!

@radiantg.bsky.social

If you like Studio Ghibli, Knives Out, The Owl House, or Frankenstein, here’s what the creators are saying about A/I.

🚫 SAY NO TO GEN A/I 🚫

"Whoever creates this stuff has no idea what pain is. [...] I never wish to incorporate this technology into my work at all. I strongly feel that this is an insult
to life itself.
- Hayao Miyazaki, co-founder of Studio Ghibli
was "utterly disgusted" when he was shown an A/I demo in 2016

Yeah, f*** A/I. It's something that's making everything worse in every single way - I don't get it. I mean, I get it in a 'This makes sense to save money by not paying artists' way? But then, what the f*** are we doing? Is this where we want to be?"
RIAN JOHNSON ON THE USE OF A/I
Hollywood

Dana Terrace
Unsubscribe from Disney+, Pirate Owl House. I don't care. Fu*k gen A/I

NEWS
THE OWL HOUSE CREATOR DANA TERRACE ON DISNEY + SOON HAVING A/I-GENERATED SHORT-FORM CONTENT FROM USERS
Source: X | ®DanaTerrace
@FandomWire | FandomWire.com

Guillermo Del Toro “I'D RATHER DIE THAN USE GENERATIVE A/I.”

November 22, 2025 at 3:14 AM

Reposted by ratwhiskers

AXEL LYCAN

@axellycan.bsky.social

Good to know this now before anyone gets too excited about this game.

Nat The Mouse / Mad Ferret / Sammy Hains @madferret.bsky.social · 4d

kotaku.com/zoopunk-gene...

Oh man I got bad news.

Zoopunk Was Used To Demonstrate Generative AI Assets

Zoopunk was part of today's Xbox Partner Preview showcase

kotaku.com

November 21, 2025 at 1:18 AM

ratwhiskers

@ratwhiskers.bsky.social

I don't have any memes saved but do dig thru this thread because its gold i swear

Miyak 🔜Scotiacon, NFC, Furdu @miyak.bsky.social · 7d

You're(sic) last saved meme is your moral philosophy

👁 👁

November 18, 2025 at 12:56 AM

Reposted by ratwhiskers

Yagamimi

@luigiyagami.bsky.social

October 11, 2025 at 2:25 AM

Reposted by ratwhiskers

Higgly 🥪

@higglyth.bsky.social

Commission for Polar 🦋

November 5, 2025 at 8:11 PM

Reposted by ratwhiskers

Plush Knight Eric

@trubbol.bsky.social

November 4, 2025 at 11:41 AM

Reposted by ratwhiskers

🐁 Luka The Mouse - SQUEAKROSS 🧩

@lukathemouse.bsky.social

Professor Squeako here... If you use gen AI to do tasks for you, what are you doing with your life!!! Say YES to using your brain 🐀🧠

26- Rats against AI!

#rattober #rattober2025

October 26, 2025 at 9:25 PM

Reposted by ratwhiskers

SplashZone!!!

@waterabsorbant.bsky.social

there u go again girl.... dunking on that AI video by sharing it to thousands of feeds... further perpetuating their reach :)

October 24, 2025 at 6:19 PM

Reposted by ratwhiskers

E C M

@ecmajor.bsky.social

being like "i want less ai in my pinterest" is basically like saying "i want less brown in my stool"

October 21, 2025 at 8:30 PM

Reposted by ratwhiskers

Lupo!

@lupopossum.bsky.social

Me at work pretending to be neurotypical, straight and not a furry porn artist

October 19, 2025 at 3:58 PM

Reposted by ratwhiskers

shogsotg.bsky.social

@shogsotg.bsky.social

bsky.app/profile/did:...

October 17, 2025 at 10:56 PM

Reposted by ratwhiskers

Mr. Hands is making SuccuDeck 😈🃏

@mrhands31.bsky.social

It's worth reiterating that independent creators are getting debanked for the same content

Mike Stabile @mikestabile.bsky.social · Oct 16

Sam Altman suggests ChatGPT is cannibalizing your fanfic and erotica to make its own clanker porn, rolling out this December.

ChatGPT just got filthy after new update lets it talk dirty to you

'You won't get it unless you ask for it.'

metro.co.uk

October 16, 2025 at 4:27 AM

Reposted by ratwhiskers

Rob MacWolf, Werewolf Hitchhiker

@robmacwolf.thevoice.dog

When we write or draw porn or erotica, we get banned from having a bank account and our livelihoods get seized even if we give it away for free.

When billionaires steal what we've written or drawn to churn out a slop-approximate of porn, they're allowed to charge for it.

Matt Burgess (WIRED) @mattburgess1.bsky.social · Oct 14

Oh good, ChatGPT is getting "erotica for verified adults" later this year

We made ChatGPT pretty restrictive to make sure we were being careful with mental health issues. We realize this made it less useful/enjoyable to many users who had no mental health problems, but given the seriousness of the issue we wanted to get this right.

Now that we have been able to mitigate the serious mental health issues and have new tools, we are going to be able to safely relax the restrictions in most cases.

In a few weeks, we plan to put out a new version of ChatGPT that allows people to have a personality that behaves more like what people liked about 4o (we hope it will be better!). If you want your ChatGPT to respond in a very human-like way, or use a ton of emoji, or act like a friend, ChatGPT should do it (but only if you want it, not because we are usage-maxxing).

In December, as we roll out age-gating more fully and as part of our “treat adult users like adults” principle, we will allow even more, like erotica for verified adults.

October 14, 2025 at 7:50 PM

Reposted by ratwhiskers

Woozel

@wonderwoozel.bsky.social

Art for @chiropica.bsky.social of their character Erminio 🍁

Eurasian stoat (Mustela erminea) named Erminio Picard

October 13, 2025 at 11:19 PM

Reposted by ratwhiskers

mr-yoyito.bsky.social

@mr-yoyito.bsky.social

Portland Energy

October 11, 2025 at 6:42 PM

Reposted by ratwhiskers

ARCxLIGHT

@arcxlight.bsky.social

3 Rat Moon

October 12, 2025 at 4:45 PM

Reposted by ratwhiskers

eliseillu

@eliseillu.bsky.social

Day 10: Hello rat
🐀❤️

#rattober #rattober2025 #art #animalart #inktober

An illustration of a Grey and white rat with his hand up in the air waving hello. There are 4 pink hearts above him.

October 10, 2025 at 8:17 PM

Reposted by ratwhiskers

random videos with breakcore

@memesbreakcore.bsky.social

October 11, 2025 at 1:05 AM

ratwhiskers

@ratwhiskers.bsky.social

Oh this looks interesting.

⛧𝔉𝔞𝔫𝔤𝔶𝔶⛧ @fangyy.at.app.wafrn.net · Oct 5

If you are unhappy with Bluesky I am once again asking you to try wafrn . Tumblr-inspired UI with optional Bluesky integration and zero bigot tolerance. #fangyy #Bsky #Bluesky #wafrn