About a year ago, North Carolina electro-folk duo Sylvan Esso took a righteous risk, removing their catalog from Spotify in protest of founder Daniel Ek's investment in the military defense contractor Helsing. "While no solution is perfect, we simply can't continue to put our life's work in a store that, in addition to all its other glaring flaws, directly funds war machines," the band wrote at the time. Fast forward to last Friday, when Sylvan Esso released their excellent new album Ow ∞, their first through their own label Psychic Hotline. The album appeared on Spotify, as did the rest of Sylvan Esso's music.
In a video on Instagram that was deleted after a few hours, singer Amelia Meath explained the reversal. Meath said it had been a year since they left the platform, and it had difficult in ways they had predicted and ways they hadn't. She relayed that going forward, Sylvan Esso wouldn't be able to support the band's team without the Spotify revenue. She emphasized that the band's politics have not changed, and the video's caption said that fans can still support them on Bandcamp, Qobuz, and other non-Spotify platforms.
It's hard out there for an indie band. Sylvan Esso aren't the first idealists to fight the good fight, only to return to Spotify. Just ask Neil Young. But Meath is correct that if you do want to engage with Sylvan Esso's music outside Spotify, the option is there:
