The Mexican band Café Tacvba has requested that its record labels remove its entire catalog from the Spotify platform. The request was confirmed by Rubén Albarrán, the band’s vocalist, who announced in a video message that the request was delivered to Universal Music Mexico and Warner Music Mexico, the companies that own the rights to their music.
In the statement published on social media, Albarrán argued that the decision stems from a series of ethical and artistic reasons. The artist stated that the band does not wish to “finance wars and reprehensible actions” that, in his view, are related to certain capital movements on the platform. Among the reasons given, he highlighted “the investments in weaponry and the advertising of ICE,” referring to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, whose presence on the platform has been questioned by critics.
Café Tacvba’s stance also involves a rejection of Spotify’s current royalty distribution model. The singer described the payments musicians receive as “miserable” and questioned the structure of the distribution system, which he called “a completely unfair royalty pool.” The vocalist emphasized that the financial compensation received is insufficient and does not correspond to the value of the artistic work.
