We must address a serious issue that has been plaguing the industry for far too long – the unfair royalties paid to artists by streaming services. Indie band The Pocket Gods have created a documentary called ‘The 30 Second Song Movie’ to shed light on this matter, but to their dismay, Amazon has removed it from Prime Video without notice or reason. This is a concerning development, as it appears to be a form of censorship that hinders the band’s efforts to raise awareness about this critical issue.
The documentary chronicles The Pocket Gods’ battle against music streaming services, particularly Spotify, who pay out a mere £0.002 per stream after purchasing The Joe Rogan Experience (the previous rate was £0.007 p/s). This sum does not adequately compensate artists for their hard work and dedication. To challenge this, the band created 10 albums, each containing 100 songs that were only 30 seconds long, as a creative way to expose the inequities of the system.
“We’ve spent the last year making our documentary on music streaming our campaign for fair royalties so we were excited when the film was picked up in January by Amazon Prime Video,” says vocalist Mark Christopher Lee “but we still don’t know the reasons why all they have told us is that is does not fit their content guidelines despite it passing all their guidelines in January so not sure what has changed.”.
The Pocket Gods’ campaign for fairer royalties has garnered widespread attention, including coverage by BBC News and Sky News, as well as meetings with Spotify’s founder Daniel Ek and the company’s Head of Music. However, the removal of their documentary from Amazon’s platform is a setback that impedes their progress towards achieving meaningful change. It is worth noting that Amazon operates its own music streaming platform – Amazon Music – which raises questions about the motivations behind the documentary’s removal.
To conclude their campaign, The Pocket Gods have released one final album of typical duration, with only one copy made, for sale exclusively on vinyl in a local record shop in St Albans for a staggering £1m. This bold move is a testament to their commitment to the cause and their willingness to take risks to effect change. The money raised will fund an ethical alternative to the major streaming platforms that pays out 1p per stream – 50 times Spotify’s current rate.
Artists deserve to be compensated fairly for their contributions to the music industry, and censorship and suppression of their efforts to expose inequities cannot be tolerated. We must stand together to demand change and hold streaming services accountable for their practices.