The Pocket Gods are not a grindcore band – but in a grindcore kind of spirit of protest – they’ve released a record containing 1000 songs, each at 30 seconds, in an effort to send a big middle finger to Spotify. While the recent controversy regarding Spotify and that of Neil Young and Joe Rogan has been intense, the streaming platform has already been a bane of existence for many musicians over its lifetime. David Draiman of Disturbed would say otherwise though, for the artist says Spotify is important to the music industry.
As of 2019, Spotify reported that it pays between $0.00331 and $0.00437 per stream. That is BLEAK. To give so little back to artists that enrich life and provide art is insulting, which is why The Pocket Gods are looking to play the system. The Pocket Gods now have an album together titled 1000×30 – Nobody Makes Money Anymore.
Band vocalist Mark Christopher Lee says he was inspired by an Independent article where music professor Mike Errico asked if the length of a song may in fact be screwing artists out of pay. “I saw the article and it made me think, ‘Why write longer songs when we get paid little enough for just 30 seconds?’, Lee shared in an interview with iNews.
He continues, “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.”
If you look through the band’s discography on Spotify, you’ll find this isn’t the first time they’ve pulled something like this. Released in various volumes, The Pocket Gods have several albums under the title of 10×30, as well as 100×30. These albums, like 1000×30, represent the number of tracks available, and how long they last in runtime (respectively).
In an effort to be paid for their craft, this is by far one of the most interesting techniques we think a band has ever pulled off. Artists deserve to get paid real money for their work – so do what you gotta do friends and rock on!
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Words by: Michael Pementel
