And Finally Business News Digital Live Business

Vulpeck’s silent album bags $20,000 in Spotify royalties

By | Published on Wednesday 23 July 2014

Vulfpeck

When Spotify asked Vulfeck to take down their silent album ‘Sleepify’ from the streaming service, the world mourned its loss. But it turns out that in the seven weeks it was up, the band bagged $20,000 in royalties.

As previously reported, while the Thom Yorkes of this world were complaining about the royalties artists receive from Spotify, Vufpeck launched a campaign attempting to play them to their advantage in March. The band released an album featuring ten entirely silent 30 second tracks. In order to fund their next tour, they said, they needed fans to play the album on repeat as they slept. Then, once the money came rolling in, they’d go and perform in the places where the release received most plays.

Spotify took it all in good humour initially, but come April the streaming service decided that the fun had to stop. The band took the album down and uploaded a statement on the matter as an EP (on Spotify).

According to Billboard, the tracks on the ‘album’ received 5.5 million plays while it was still online. And although the band seemed unsure back in May if they would get their money, they’ve now received a payout of $19,655.56, alongside smaller payments for their less popular non-silent releases.

It’s not really enough for the world tour that you (or they) might have been hoping for, but keyboard player Jack Stratton told Billboard that they now plan to use the money to play in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, New York, and the band’s former hometown of Ann Arbor.



READ MORE ABOUT: |