The Pocket Gods who have recently released an album of 1000 songs each 30 seconds long which has gone viral around the world protesting against low royalty rates from Spotify, are calling on established artists like Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, Paul McCartney, Adele, Sam Fender U2 & Stormzy to join the protest and release just 30 second songs until artists, songwriters & musicians achieve a fairer deal from Spotify.
These stars should effectively “work to rule” and produce the bare minimum to raise awareness on behalf of all the artists, musicians & songwriters around the world.
They can also have fun adapting their songwriting craft to the 30 second format. As Spotify pays out a royalty after 30 secs why write longer songs? Why not adapt to the streaming media, low attention spans and TikTok videos of today?
The Pocket Gods’ new album
1000×30 Nobody Makes Money Anymore which is 1000 (yes you read that right!) songs each around 30 seconds long has touched a nerve around the world gaining features in the NME, Rolling Stone, The I Newspaper, Channel 4 News, Hotpress, Metal Hammer, MSN News & loads more places.
The band state that they earn around £0.002 from each stream of a song from Spotify – it used to be around £0.007 which was still a pittance but since it purchased the rights for the Joe Rogan podcast it has reduced dramatically and that Spotify is not paying enough respect to the artists that have made it the world’s leading music streaming service.
The album is out now on Spotify:
The band have been campaigning for fairer royalties since their first (in a series of 9) albums of 100 songs all 30 seconds long back in 2015. The band read an article by US music Professor Mike Ericco who asked why songwriters of today weren’t adapting their craft to the media of today. He said the reason why people started writing 3-minute pop songs was due to the length of 7-inch vinyl. He said artists should just write 30 second songs as streaming services paid out a royalty in full after this – why would you write longer songs especially as they were paying so little.
The Pocket Gods took this on board and recorded their first 100X30 album which as well gaining features on UK and International TV also got them an official Guinness World Record for most songs on a digital album. Since then, the band have released 9 albums of the same format and their 2021 album 500X30 Morse Code Days In Lockdown holds the current world record for most tracks on an album (446).
The band were formed in 1998 at Tower Records in London and recorded 74 albums since then and were briefly discovered by the late John Peel before he tragically died a few months after championing the band. They have also had rave reviews from the likes of Tom Robinson and Steve Lamacq from BBC 6 music.
The band are Noel Storey (keys) and Mark Christopher Lee Vocals and Guitar (both founding members) ex Searchers drummer Scott Ottaway and Simon Herries on Bass.
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