'They touch everything': Sylvan Esso confronts the Spotify dilemma, again

Sylvan Esso's fifth studio album, Ow ∞ ("ow infinity"), was released Sept.11 on the band's own label, Psychic Hotline.

Graham Tolbert/Psychic Hotline hide caption In September 2025, the electro-pop duo Sylvan Esso made headlines with the announcement that it was removing its catalog from Spotify.The world's most popular music streamer wasn't new to criticism, having faced years of scrutiny for its payment structure and boycotts from the likes of Neil Young, who in 2022 accused the service of platforming misinformation.

But the temperature changed last year with the revelation that Spotify's then-CEO, Daniel Ek, was a major investor in Helsing, an AI software company that designs military weapons systems.Beginning that June with the experimental rockers Deerhoof, a wave of prominent indie artists pulled their music, denouncing the use of their work to fund defense tech.Sylvan Esso, made up of married couple Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn, was arguably the most visible member of that cohort: an established act for over a decade, darlings of public radio and late-night TV, a likeable and media-friendly pair whose Grammy-nominated work was equal parts accessible and unconventional.A year later, the band has returned to the spotlight, bearing new music and another small bombshell.

Ow ∞ (pronounced "ow infinity") is Sylvan Esso's fifth studio album, released on its own label, Psychic Hotline, and created with a huge cast of collaborators at Betty's, Meath and Sanborn's homegrown recording studio in the Triangle region of North Carolina.The album hit stores on Sept.

11.A week later came an Instagram post announcing that Ow ∞, along with the rest of the band's discography, would be back on Spotify beginning Sept.

18.In a conversation with reporter Brian Burns from NPR member station WUNC in Chapel Hill, N.C., both Meath and Sanborn describe t...