Spotify: British band to release 1,000-track album of 30-second songs in royalty rate protest
One track is titled ‘0.002’ in reference to how much artists are paid per stream
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Your support makes all the difference.British rock band The Pocket Gods are releasing a 1,000 track album of 30-second songs as a protest against Spotify’s payment rates.
The streaming service has been widely criticised by artists in the past for its methods of paying artists, with royalties only being activated if a song is listened to for 30 seconds.
This system has led industry specialists to suggest that the standard three-minute pop song could be on its way out, with songs becoming shorter in line with Spotify’s system.
Now, The Pocket Gods – who hail from St Albans – have announced plans to release an album titled 1000×30 – Nobody Makes Money Anymore. It will consist of 1,000 songs hitting the 30-second mark.
The band said that they had been inspired by a 2015 article in The Independent written by music professor Mike Errico titled: “How streaming is changing everything we know about making music.”
“I saw the article and it made me think, ‘Why write longer songs when we get paid little enough for just 30 seconds?’” frontman Mark Christopher Lee told The i.
“We wrote and recorded 1,000 songs, each a shade over 30 seconds long for the album. The longest is 36 seconds. It is designed to raise awareness about the campaign for fair royalty rates.”
One track is titled “0.002”, a reference to the amount that artists earn per stream.
“We used to get [£0.007] a play, still a pittance but that seems to have been cut since Spotify bought the Joe Rogan Experience podcast for $100m,” Lee claimed.
The Independent has contacted Spotify for comment.
Spotify has recently faced backlash from artists for allowing Rogan to share falsehoods about the coronavirus vaccine on their platform, with Neil Young and Joni Mitchell removing their back catalogues in protest.
However, Lee said that the band’s protest was a separate issue, adding: “Spotify is a great musical resource and it allows indie bands like us to upload our music without record companies.
“I also believe in free speech even though I’m a massive Neil Young fan so I don’t support the boycott. We just want to raise awareness of the royalties issue.”
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