World record breaking indie band The Pocket Gods release their new album 1000×30 – Nobody Makes Money Anymore. The album consists of 1000 (yes you read that right!) songs each around 30 seconds long. The reason for the songs being 30 seconds is that this is the length after which Spotify pays out a royalty in full.
The album is a protest against the lack of fair royalties from music streaming services to artists, songwriters, and performers. 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 became a listed company in 2018 it has reduced dramatically.
The single from the album is called 0.002. The B-side is – Nobody Makes Money Anymore.
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.
The Pocket Gods:
twitter @thepocketgod
Facebook @thepocketgods
Insta @markchristopherleeWorld
