Durham-based electropop duo Sylvan Esso made a twofold announcement Tuesday. They both released their latest single in three years, and removed their discography from Spotify.
“As we prepare to release new music, we have to decide what we want to be a part of and what we don’t,” the band said in a statement. “To that end, with Sylvan Esso being on our own label for the first time, we have decided to remove our music from Spotify. 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 new single WDID is the group’s first in three years, and their first single under their new label Psychic Hotline. It will be released as a 12″ physical single alongside B-side “KEEP ON” on January 9. According to Consequence of Sound, the single was recorded in the duo’s Chapel Hill studio with production assistance from Jake Luppen.
In July it was announced that Spotify CEO Daniel Ek is one of the primary investors in European defense startup Helsing. Following this, multiple artists removed their discography from the platform in protest, including King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard, Xiu Xiu, and more. Sylvan Esso is the latest.
The company announced the same day Sylvan Esso departed that Ek will step down as CEO and transition into a new role as executive chairman in 2026. Alongside anger over its CEO’s investments, the platform has been criticized by artists for paying less per stream than similar platforms like Apple Music and Tidal.
Sylvan Esso consists of Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn and has been active since 2013. They have released four studio albums, with the most recent being 2022’s “No Rules Sandy.” Of their particular style, the New York Times said “Sylvan Esso evades the booming, repetitive overkill of typical electronic dance music. Instead, the tracks stay fragile and keep coming deliberately unsprung, defying mechanical regularity.”
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