Ryuichi Sakamoto estate joins ‘No Music For Genocide’ campaign
The estate of legendary Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto has joined the ’No Music For Genocide’ campaign and removed the artist’s music from streaming in Israel.
The estate wrote on Facebook: “To the extent possible, the Estate has removed or issued formal requests to labels to remove his music from all DSP (streaming and download) services in Israel. For much of his catalog, this has already taken effect.”
The ’No Music For Genocide’ campaign is a cultural boycott initiative which encourages artists and rights-holders to pull their music from streaming platforms in Israel, in response to the genocide in Gaza.
More than 400 artists, including Björk, Massive Attack, Fontaines D.C., Paramore, Kneecap and Wednesday, have joined ‘No Music For Genocide’, with each involved sending geo-block requests to their distributor or label.
They are encouraging major label groups like Sony, UMG and Warner to follow suit, especially since they blocked their entire music catalogues in Russia a month into their invasion of Ukraine.
A statement from ‘No Music For Genocide’ stated: “Culture can’t stop bombs on its own, but it can help reject political repression, shift public opinion toward justice, and refuse the art-washing and normalization of any company or nation that commits crimes against humanity.”
Other artists part of the initiative include Lorde, Wolf Alice, IDLES, Lucy Dacus, AURORA, Rina Sawayama, Primal Scream, Amyl & The Sniffers and MØ.
Ryuichi Sakamoto died in 2023, aged 71. He was a pioneer of electronic music in the late 1970s and founded the Yellow Magic Orchestra, also known as YMO, with Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi. He went on to become a world-renowned composer for films like The Last Emperor, a score for which he won an Oscar in 1987, as well as Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, The Sheltering Sky, Little Buddha and The Revenant.
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