Gut Health are coming off a big week.
The Melbourne punks were revealed as one of the nominees for Michael Gudinski Breakthrough Artist at the 2025 ARIA Awards last Thursday. They’ll compete in the tough category alongside Mia Wray, the record-breaking Ninajirachi, Young Franco, and Folk Bitch Trio.
It was another part of ARIA’s nominations announcement, however, that concerned Gut Health’s band members: it revealed that, for the first time, the ARIA’s public voted awards will be integrated into Spotify, enabling fans to cast daily votes directly in the platform’s app.
“The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) is proud to welcome Spotify as the new presenting partner of the ARIA Awards, delivering an unprecedented global platform for Australian music to shine,” a press release stated.
“Leveraging Spotify’s millions of international listeners, in-app programming, and strategic marketing initiatives, the three-year partnership will amplify ARIA Award winners, nominees and all Australian artists far beyond our local borders.
“Through targeted playlisting, editorial support, and high-impact marketing, the momentum of the Awards will translate into real export opportunities for Australian music, ensuring Australia and the world are listening.”
Instead of solely celebrating their Breakthrough Artist nomination, Gut Health took to social media last Friday (September 26th) to express their disappointment at the ARIAs and Spotify’s partnership.
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“We’re thankful for the nomination, but it’s a shame that the ARIAs have chosen to collaborate with Spotify for the next three years,” they shared in a statement.
“We want to be honest about this experience of ‘breaking through’ as an artist in today’s world. We can acknowledge the global reach of the platform while also recognising the inherent ethical issues at play here.
“More and more, breaking through as an artist today means navigating contradictions like this, and we hope more voices join the conversation for change.”
Gut Health’s statement said that “we can’t ignore the irony of ARIA partnering with Spotify. The platform is infamous for paying artists fractions of a cent per stream, and over time, has been criticised for using “ghost artists” on their platform, leading to even less royalties flowing to the real musicians.”
Their statement specifically highlighted that Daniel Ek, Spotify’s CEO, also chairs Helsing, a European defence tech company building military AI technology, noting the number of high-profile acts who have left Spotify in protest, “refusing to see their music tied to war profiteering.”
Fellow Australian band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard removed almost all of their extensive catalogue from Spotify in July, calling out the streaming behemoth in an Instagram Story.
“Hello friends… A PSA to those unaware: Spotify CEO Daniel Ek invests millions in AI military drone technology… We just removed our music from the platform… Can we put pressure on these Dr. Evil tech bros to do better?… Join us on another platform,” their short but pointed statement read.
King Gizzard followed Deerhoof in announcing their intent to remove their music from Spotify. The US rock band explained why they decided to take their music off Spotify in statement, stating “[w]e don’t want our music killing people.”
Gut Health’s statement questioned whether ARIA partnering with Spotify is a “game-changer.”
“For who? It further entrenches emerging artists’ reliance on a platform that devalues them and their art, while its CEO profits from conflict.”
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Perhaps the most important part of the band’s statement was the following: “This feels like an important moment to reimagine how we value music. Buying records and merch directly, supporting local record stores and labels, subscribing to community radio, and grabbing tickets in advance are small but powerful acts.”
“They help keep artists alive outside the streaming machine,” they added.
King Gizzard have shown there are other, more ethical ways to enjoy music, letting fans “name your price” for their catalogue on Bandcamp.
In response to Gut Health’s comments, ARIA CEO Annabelle Herd told Rolling Stone AU/NZ in a statement: “ARIA has partnered with Spotify to help amplify ARIA Award nominees, winners and all Australian artists at home and far beyond our local borders.
“Of course we respect an artist’s decision to comment on what is a highly complex issue, but this partnership will deliver an unprecedented global platform to tell the stories of this year’s nominees directly where the majority of Australia – and the world – listen to music.
“The ARIA Awards are a critical platform for local artists to reach new audiences. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to leverage Spotify’s global scale and expertise in music discovery to grow that platform and spotlight our artists in this way, especially at a time when cutting through and building audiences has never been more difficult.”
Gut Health (at the time of writing, their catalogue is still on Spotify) earned two nominations at the 2025 Rolling Stone Australia Awards, including Best New Artist, and featured in our Future of Music 2025 list.
We described their debut album, Stiletto, as having “[…] explosive energy, excitable sprechgesang, and some of the best dance-punk hooks since the mid-2000s.” We also included the album in our 100 Best Australian Albums of the 2020s So Far list.
