True story:
Once upon a time, when streaming music (and paying for the streaming music instead of Limewiring it like us 90s babies did) was still in its infancy, a band “gamed” the Spotify system and made the easiest $20k any hoo-man has ever made.
The band?
Vulfpeck.
The album?
Sleepify.
The idea?
Release a 10-track record on Spotify to crowdfund a free tour by gaming Spotify’s royalties calculator.
The kicker?
The 10-track record did not have a single audible sound. The 10 tracks lasted about 30 seconds each. And were pure silence.
Vulpeck encouraged their fans to stream the album on repeat while they sleep to jimmy the royalties algorithm.
The result?
Well, Spotify pulled Sleepify from its platform on April 26, 2014. But this wasn’t quick enough for the streaming giant: By the time Spotify pulled the album, Vulfpeck had generated about 5.5 million listens, which resulted in $19,655 in royalties.
Vulfpeck then went on a free tour, hitting some of the biggest cities in America.
Pretty wild story, eh?
As for the morals of the story, I have a few:
1. Money is everywhere for those wise enough to see it.
2. You don’t need to put out the world’s best content to make you summadat moolah from point #1.
3. When you’re the best of the best, you can create your own rules.
If’n you’re familiar with the funk band, they are so tight it makes musicians everywhere squirm.
They’re at the top of the league—and seeing them this past summer only confirmed my suspicions.
But the interesting part is this:
Spotify left the album on their streaming platform for a full 7 weeks before pulling it down, and called it a “clever stunt.” They forked over the moolah to Vulfpeck too—something they could’ve been at least difficult about.
But Vulfpeck is the truth.
Anywho:
The second easiest $20k any hoo-man can make is equally as simple:
If you have an email list and a product, then hitting reply and partnering with your humble narrator here can result in the easiest $20k you ever did make. And who knows, we could end up adding a whole extra zero to that $20k number too given enough time.
But you’ll never know if you don’t physically hit the reply button.
Ball’s in your court, bucko.
John
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