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Music

ANOHNI Said She Regrets Working with Apple on "Drone Bomb Me" Video

"My being bought as a politically outspoken artist is a more potent advertising tool for Apple than a 100 more explicit ads."
Photo by Annie Collinge

English artist and activist ANOHNI has criticized the influence of tech companies on the music industry in a new interview with The Creative Independent. Describing the economy as one where "The income streams of musicians have all been upstreamed into the pockets of computer corporations," she also specifically laments working with Apple, who funded the "Drone Bomb Me" video starring Naomi Campbell.

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She said that the video is an advertisement for Apple, although she "didn't want to admit it" when it was being made. "My being bought as a politically outspoken artist is a more potent advertising tool for Apple than a 100 more explicit ads," she explained. "It creates the false aura for Apple of being cutting edge, of being artist advocates, of being innovative mavericks, of being environmentally friendly, of caring about people and communities, instead of being the McDonalds of consumer high tech whose wealth was largely pilfered from what was once a biodiverse music industry."

As a result of streaming, it has become normalized for musicians to not get paid for their music, she says. "Everyone has literally bitten the Apple; no one is connecting the fact that they no longer spend any money on recordings with the fact that they give all their money to the companies making the machines that consumers use to steal the recordings."

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