The Pocket Gods take on Spotify streaming royalties and win

A clever marketing decision from UK rock band The Pocket Gods has launched the group into the global music spotlight and brought much-needed attention to concerns over streaming royalties.

A guest post by James Shotwell of Haulix.

Spotify finds itself in a lot of hot water right now. The streaming giant is currently embroiled in a battle over misinformation and free speech centered around controversial podcast host Joe Rogan that has, to date, involved multiple rock legends and even earned a response from the White House. In addition to this, the Daniel Ek founded platform is battling several protests from artists worldwide concerned over the minuscule royalty rate offered by Spotify. While Joe Rogan earns $100million, musicians earn roughly $0.004 per stream before splitting that money with their team.

Longtime Haulix clients The Pocket Gods have developed a unique solution to their problems with Spotify. The English rock band is currently making headlines with plans to record and release a 1,000 track album comprised entirely of 30-second songs. The tracks are long enough to be counted as legitimate streams by Spotify but run much shorter than the average song.

The Pocket Gods were inspired to attempt this undertaking after reading an article in The Independent from professor Mike Errico. He said that Spotify’s methods surrounding what constitutes a song—otherwise known as their decision to count plays after 30-seconds—could signal the end of the three-minute pop song.

“I saw the article, and it made me think, ‘Why write longer songs when we get paid little enough for just 30 seconds?’” The Pocket Gods frontman Mark Christopher Lee told i News.

The new album – ‘1000×30 – Nobody Makes Money Anymore’ – directly references Spotify’s business model, and as such, Lee says that it means the band “run the risk of being thrown off the platform.”

Of the process of writing the album, he added: “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.”

The logic behind Errico’s original story and The Pocket Gods’ new material is sound. If an artist stands to make the same amount of money for a 30-second song as they do from one that runs several minutes in length, then what is the value proposition of making longer songs? When it takes the same amount of time to consume one modern pop song in full as it does to hear 4-6 tracks of The Pocket Gods’ record, any artist hoping to make money will see the value in writing shorter material.

“Spotify is a great musical resource, and it allows indie bands like us to upload our music without record companies,” the frontman added. “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.”

This week, Music Biz host James Shotwell connected with Pocket Gods’ Mark Christopher Lee for a quick chat about the album, the response, and where the band goes from here. Check it out:

James Shotwell is the Director of Customer Engagement at Haulix and host of the company’s podcast, Inside Music. He is also a public speaker known for promoting careers in the entertainment industry, as well as an entertainment journalist with over a decade of experience. His bylines include Rolling Stone, Alternative Press, Substream Magazine, Nu Sound, and Under The Gun Review, among other popular outlets.