Sylvan Esso have returned their music to Spotify after a year-long boycott, a decision Amelia Meath frames as a matter of payroll rather than principle. In an Instagram video, she acknowledged that keeping the catalogue off the service “felt really good,” but said the consequences had become unsustainable: “It’s become more and more apparent that if we are going to continue to employ everyone that we employ it is unsustainable for us not to be on that platform.”
Meath’s frustration is explicit. She said her political views and Nick Sanborn’s have not changed. “I don’t fucking like it and I’m really frustrated by this reality,” she added, while noting that 82% of streaming happens through Spotify. The band pointed listeners toward Bandcamp, Qobuz, Subvert, and local record shops as alternatives.
The reversal lands a week after the duo released their first album in four years, Ow ∞, via their own label, Psychic Hotline. Produced by Meath and Sanborn, the 12-track record was built from material created at their Betty’s studio in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with contributions from Daniel Aged, BJ Burton, Glenn Kotche, Jenn Wasner, and others. It follows July’s “Concrete Glen,” which sampled Sigur Rós.
The return to Spotify is not a concession to the platform’s model. It is a calculation about survival—one that independent artists increasingly face when most streams run through a single service. Meath made clear what the move is not: an endorsement.
