Vulfpeck
Vulfpeck is an American funk band based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It was founded in 2011 by Jack Stratton. The band wanted to organize a tour for their small but loyal fan base. The problem was that they had no money to fund the costs of the tour. The traditional approaches to this issue were to raise money by crowdfunding or selling tickets in advance or selling enough downloads. These were all difficult so the band came up with a crazy idea to exploit a loophole in the royalty model of Spotify, a major music streaming site.
In 2014 Vulfpeck released an album called Sleepify. It contained 10 silent tracks each of about 31 seconds. The album contains no audible sound! They published it on Spotify and asked their fans to leaving it running overnight on a continuous loop. The name Sleepify reflects the idea that you play it while you sleep. Spotify pays artists a tiny sum for each track played for at least 30 seconds. Spotify is funded through advertising and subscriptions. The fans responded ardently and there were hundreds of thousands of plays. Vulfpeck earned around $20,000 in royalties from Spotify and sure enough, in September 2014 they put on the tour. It covered six major cities across the US from New York to San Francisco. Admission was free. It was called the Sleepify tour and garnered the band enormous attention and good will.
This is the list of the tracks on the Sleepify album:
- “Z”
- “Zz”
- “Zzz”
- “Zzzz”
- “Zzzzz”
- “Zzzzzz”
- “Zzzzzzz”
- “Zzzzzzzz”
- “Zzzzzzzzz”
- “Zzzzzzzzzz”
The album was given a droll review in the Guardian by Tom Jonze who remarked, “the opening track ‘Z’ certainly sets the tone, a subtle, intriguing work that teases the listener as to what may come next. It’s followed by ‘Zz’ and ‘Zzz’ which continue along similar lyrical themes while staying true to Sleepify’s overriding minimalist aesthetic.”
The album’s innovative royalty-generating scheme received worldwide press coverage, from Brazil to Russia. Spotify reacted with good humor. They called the idea a ‘clever stunt’ and paid the royalties due but they pulled the album after seven weeks and then changed their terms of service.
What could be more lateral than a music album that contains no music?
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