Sylvan Esso’s Amelia Meath says it’s “terrifying” how streaming has changed the way we consume music: “No one knows who they’re listening to now”

Sylvan Esso’s decision to remove their catalogue from Spotify last year wasn’t just a protest against the platform’s leadership. According to vocalist and songwriter Amelia Meath, it also reflects a growing unease with how streaming has reshaped the way people discover – and just as quickly forget – music.

Speaking in a new interview with MusicRadar, Meath argues that streaming has encouraged increasingly disposable listening habits, leaving fewer listeners with an actual connection to the artists behind the songs they love.

“I sound like an ancient grump now, but I find the way it has changed how people consume music really terrifying,” she says. “I hate that no one knows who they are listening to now. A song is something they listen to for a week, then it is gone, and there’s no ability to sit with a record.”

Sylvan Esso pulled their music from Spotify in September 2025 in protest of the platform’s practices and investments made by former CEO Daniel Ek. For the electronic duo, however, the move was never about persuading other musicians to follow suit.

Instead, they hoped it would encourage listeners to think more carefully about where and how they choose to stream their music.

“I don’t have a problem with the concept of streaming, I have a problem with Daniel Ek,” says bandmate Nick Sanborn. “I was tired of feeling like a frog in a pot and not realising the water was getting hot.”

“I think, for a lot of us, there are many terrifying things happening in the world right now, it leads everyone to this state of numbness and feeling like the bad guys winning is inevitable – and there’s nothing we can do about it – the truth is that this is not true, we can tell them to go fuck themselves any time we want.”

“The goal was not getting other artists to remove their music from Spotify – which is a logistically and financially tricky thing to do,” Sanborn continues. “Instead, we wanted the average person who listens to music to consider where they were getting it from and change their streaming service. I would also like to plug Ahmed Muin’s record, Life is Hard as Mud – Songs from the Gaza Strip, 2024-25. This is a bunch of field recordings of him singing along to drones and children in Gaza.”

As Sylvan Esso gear up for the release of their new album, Ow ∞ (due out 11 September), the band also share some advice for aspiring producers navigating today’s music industry. For Meath, the key is to stop chasing trends and focus on discovering what genuinely resonates with you creatively.

“The latest thing I’m coming back to is all you can do is work out if you like what you create, then keep on pursuing this,” she says. “You need to dig this trench to see what is under it – this is what I’m interested in – not reference points but the excavation of discovery.”

Sanborn, meanwhile, argues that creative communities are more important than ever in the current landscape.

“Do everything you can to be a part of a scene, get on the Discords, go to the places, do the things and be the person you want to come to your gigs,” he says. “Community and fellowship is the ultimate secret weapon against all forms of fascism. And in these times, feeding your local scene and being part of it is more important than ever.”