Sylvan Esso have put their music back on Spotify after a year-long boycott.
The duo had joined a number of artists in removing their music from Spotify last year, following reports that the then-CEO Daniel Ek led a €600million (£524million) investment into Helsing, a Munich-based company creating drones and artificial intelligence for military operations.
Sylvan Esso pulled their catalogue in September 2025, saying they could no longer put their work on a service that “directly funds war machines.”
Now, they’re returning to the platform, saying they can no longer afford to stay off it.
In a video posted Friday (September 18), Amelia Meath said that the boycott has presented financial issues. “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, so we are going to put it back up on there,” she said.
She went on to say that her and bandmate Nick Sanborn’s views haven’t changed, adding, “I don’t fucking like it, and I’m really frustrated by this reality.”
Meath went on to add that 82 per cent of streaming happens on Spotify, but encouraged fans to use other services like Bandcamp, Qobuz, Subvert, or their local record stores.
Sylvan Esso released their fifth album, ‘Ow ∞’, just last week via the Psychic Hotline label after debuting on Partisan back in 2014.
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard also pulled their music from the streaming platform last year, in a bid to “put pressure on these Dr. Evil tech bros to do better”. Xiu Xiu made a similar move due to Ek’s “investment in AI war drones”, while Massive Attack, Deerhoof and Wu Lyf all removed their music too.
Last September, Ek announced that he would be stepping down as CEO on January 1, 2026, with Spotify co-presidents Alex Norström and Gustav Söderström set to take his place.
During his tenure, Ek came under fire multiple times, including when it was reported that Spotify had made profits of over €1billion (£860million), but at the expense of staff being laid off, artists struggling to make any income from streaming, and subscription prices rising.
It became even harder for artists to make money from the platform in 2024, when Spotify officially demonetised all songs on the platform with less than 1,000 streams.
