Band makes $20,000 on the quiet

May 12, 2014 11:23 am 5 comments Views:

A still from the video promoting Vulfpeck’s Spotify stunt. Picture: YouTube
Source: Supplied

A US band has made $ 20,000 selling silence through music streaming service Spotify.

Vulfpeck uploaded 10 songs of complete silence, an album they called Sleepify, to the site in a bid to use their fans’ loyalty to fund a free tour.

The fact that it rorted Spotify’s royalties system didn’t hurt either.

The Los Angeles-based funk group asked followers to play the set of blank tracks over and over while they slept.

With track names like Zzz and Zzzzz, group spokesman Jack Stratton said the album was “much quieter” than their previous albums.

“In fact, we believe it’s the most silent album ever recorded,” he said in a YouTube video posted in March.

THE SLEEPIFY STUNT

Artists on Spotify make half a cent per play and enough listeners got on board with the scheme to raise $ 20,000.

In the beginning, Spotify seemed amused by the stunt, with its spokesman Graham James saying: “This is a clever stunt, but we prefer Vulfpeck’s earlier albums.”

After indulging the band for about seven weeks, Spotify eventually put a stop to the scheme, taking down the tracks and emailing the band to say the tracks violated its terms and conditions.

“I think they panicked when they realised someone was actually making money from the music,” keyboardist Jack Stratton told Vice.

Spotify has not declared whether it will pay out the $ 20,000 raised, but Stratton is hopeful it will.

Spotify founder Daniel Eck talks up the free music streaming service. Photo: Jason DeCrow/Spotify
Source: Supplied

“Spotify pays two months after the listen. So we’ll know in May sometime,” he said.

“If we get the money we’ll go on tour and use Sleepify sales as the tour budget.”

The band reacted to the shutdown of Sleepify by posting a new three-track EP called Official Statement.

The second track, #Reflect, is a pretty clear middle-finger to the streaming service, as it is 31 seconds of silence.

Spotify is growing in prominence throughout the world, with the site’s head of European label relations Kevin Brown telling Music Week that the free streaming service would be bigger than iTunes in Europe in coming years.