LA band, Vulfpeck recently received a substantial amount of press coverage for their Sleepify album, a silent release created to fund their tour via Spotify. Fans were encouraged to play the album on repeat while asleep (hence, Sleepify), raising around $4 per fan per night across the 10 tracks.
All the proposed shows were to be free and venues based on the locations of listeners.
“Vulfpeck is a half-Jewish German-American rhythm section based in Los Angeles. Originally studio musicians at Vulf Records, Jack Stratton, Theo Katzman, Woody Goss & Joe Dart have released four albums under Vulfpeck.”
Sleepify Video Press Release
Spotify removes Sleepify album
The crafty creation (which features such compelling track titles as ‘Z’, ‘Zz’ and the closing ‘Zzzzzzzzzz’) was recently pulled for a terms of service violation. Though Spotify did leave it in place for quite some time, even tweeting somewhat lighthearted observations about the album before taking action.
During it’s availability, the album generated $18-25k, but the band are still waiting to see if the payment will be made or withheld. As novel as the idea was, I’m sure Spotify really didn’t want to set a precedent.
The band then went on to record Official Statement (including a recorded response from the band, a moment of silence followed by some music) releasing it in on the streaming platform.
“There are only three sure things on this planet:
➊ Death
➋ Taxes
➌ Journalists love to cite John Cage” – Vulfpeck on Twitter
What does this all add to the ongoing debate about the share of revenue paid to artists by Spotify? How should I know, man? I’m too busy to wax pontifical. Wading through all this tight jazz and funk that I found via the press coverage takes time.
All of the above has been widely documented (BBC, TechCrunch, Billboard) and isn’t really news. I’m talking about Vulfpeck, however, because the music is good, damn good.
‘It Gets Funkier’
The dry humour, the basslines and the video editing, a fair portion of the band’s output sounds like a 70s TV theme song in the best way possible. Now if only I had a sassy catchphrase to use before the freeze frame and rolling credits…
