Rock Band to Release 1,000 30-Second Songs to Trick Spotify Royalty Payout
While Spotify remains in the news as music fans dissect the Neil Young vs. Joe Rogan debate, that's not the only issue that the streaming service faces. Royalty rates have long been a concern of music artists, and in recently announcing their intent to exit the streaming service, Failure noted not only the Rogan controversy but their concern over royalties paid to artists. Now another rock band has taken things a step further to bring attention to the royalty issues.
According to NME, a rock band called The Pocket Gods have decided to release a 1,000 track album with each of the songs clocking in at around 30 seconds. Why 30 seconds? The current Spotify streaming model activates revenue from the stream of a song after 30 seconds of airing.
The band were reportedly inspired by an article in The Independent where it was suggested that Spotify's current methods could signal the end of the three-minute pop song.
“I saw the article and it made me think, ‘Why write longer songs when we get paid little enough for just 30 seconds?’,” The Pocket Gods frontman Mark Christopher Lee told iNews.
The U.K. band noted that you get approximately £0.002 as a payment when a song streams, and it's the same rather a full song plays or just 30 seconds.
“We wrote and recorded 1,000 songs, each a shade over 30 seconds long for the album. The longest is 36 seconds,” Lee said. “It is designed to raise awareness about the campaign for fair royalty rates.”
Driving home the point of their goal, the band has titled their new album, 1000X30 - Nobody Makes Money Anymore. And their single is aptly titled "0.002." “We used to get 0.007p a play, still a pittance but that seems to have been cut since Spotify bought the Joe Rogan Experience podcast for $100 million," the musician added.
Lee stated that while they are uploading the album to Spotify, he's aware “we run the risk of being thrown off the platform.” At press time, only the "0.002" single and "Nobody Makes Any Money Anymore" title track had been uploaded to the streaming service.
As for coming up with 1,000 songs for the album, it was a task. “Sometimes we start with a chorus and repeat it, others have a verse and chorus,” said the singer. “There’s not much room for maneuvering. Audiences enjoy the songs live but it’s difficult for the band to get into a groove."