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A Guinness Record-breaking indie band is aiming for the weirdest-ever Christmas number one with its new 30-second single
Guinness Record-breaking indie band The Pocket Gods is aiming for the weirdest-ever Christmas number one with its new single (and album) “I’m Dreaming Of A White Noise Christmas”.
The 30-Second-Song
The single is only 30 seconds long and made up of just white noise which is layered with a hint of jingle bells to give it a festive flavor. After the band has been campaigning for fairer royalties from Spotify with its series of 30-second song albums, it has now decided to stop making music completely and just release 30-second tracks of white noise instead!
The idea of the 30-second song came after US music professor Mike Errico challenged bands to adapt to the media of today saying there was no need to carry on writing three-minute pop songs – that format came about because of the length of 7 inch vinyl. He argued that songwriters should adapt to the streaming media of today which pays out a royalty once a track reaches 30 seconds and then no more. As it is only such a derisory royalty of around £0.003p per stream, why write longer songs?
Here is Mike Errico with Mark on BBC Global News talking about it:
Pocket Gods
Mark Christopher Lee from the band accepted the challenge and recorded the first of nine albums each with at least 100 songs, each song just 30 seconds long. Along the way the band gained Guinness World Records for most tracks on a digital album – the May 2021 album Morse Code Days In Lockdown – where every date of English lockdown was turned into morse code which was then transposed for piano – holds the current Guinness Record (446). See here: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/412387-most-songs-on-a-digital-album
The band continues its quest for fairness and clarity from music streaming services and gave evidence to the recent parliamentary inquiry into music streaming which included evidence showing that, since Spotify became a public listed company, the band’s royalty rates had halved – whilst in the same time it had enough to secure the rights of Joe Rogan’s podcast.
The band has effectively downed tools with the Christmas single and album and is aiming to take on Ed Sheeran, Adele and Mariah Carey for the coveted Christmas number one spot, aiming to raise awareness and put pressure on Spotify to increase its royalty rates for independent artists.
Merry Christmas!
PGs
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