UK indie band The Pocket Gods have been advocating for fairer royalties from Spotify since 2015 through a unique approach – releasing a series of 30-second song albums. The band’s latest album, 1000X30 Nobody Makes Money Anymore, features an impressive 1000 songs, each just 30 seconds long.
While the album has gained the band press and fans around the world, as well as a Guinness World Record, The Pocket Gods’ front person Mark Christopher Lee says they have only earned £400 from Spotify for nearly 2 million streams. This, he says, is “pretty scandalous” and highlights the need for change.
The issue is only set to worsen, as Spotify plans to introduce a minimum threshold of 1000 listeners before an artist gets paid. As a voting member of the Recording Academy (The Grammys) in the US and a member of BPI (British Phonographic Industry) who organize The Brit Awards in the UK, Lee is well aware of the challenges facing independent artists. However, he has made the decision to boycott these events, stating that the music industry is in denial about the problem.
Lee believes that the current state of the music industry is reminiscent of the 90s, when it failed to adapt to the emergence of the internet. While streaming has its benefits, it needs to evolve with the help of the music industry to become fairer and more sustainable for all artists, especially up-and-coming ones.
The Pocket Gods formed in 1998 at Tower Records in London and have since released 77 albums and over 5,000 songs, gaining high-profile champions like Tom Robinson and Seymour Stein along the way. The band’s campaign for fairer royalties has been documented in a film titled Inspired: The 30 Second Song Movie, which is now available on Amazon Prime.
Derick is an experienced reporter having held multiple senior roles for large publishers across Europe. Specialist subjects include small business and financial emerging markets.