Can you monetise silence?
Apparently you can do whatever the fuck you want if you have the compliance of your fans, a nose for scams and a Spotify account. A few months back, an LA based conman syndicate indie band desperate to wring every cent possible from Spotify’s $0.007 per play royalty structure dropped an entirely silent album, Sleepify, across the popular online music streaming platform and asked their small but loyal fanbase to play if on repeat as they went to sleep each night.
It apparently worked a treat, The band, Vulfpeck, raising somewhere in the vicinity of $20,000 to go towards putting on a free tour of America in the places where the album was played most.
Spotify’s response?
At first, they were pretty cool with it. “It’s a clever stunt but we prefer Vulfpeck’s earlier albums,” Spotify spokesman Graham James said. “Sleepify seems derivative of John Cage’s work.”
But then they were all like yeah, nah and removed the album forever, citing a breach of their terms and conditions.
This one goes out to Vulfpeck.
