Streaming is quickly becoming the main way that a lot of people listen to their music. Between more radio station-like services like Pandora and more on-demand streaming services like Spotify, Rdio, and the upcoming Apple Music, it has never been easier to listen to any music you feel like, whenever you feel like it.
There’s only one problem: most bands don’t get paid very well, if at all, when you stream their music. A new web app by the name of Eternify aims to change that. Enter the name of your favorite artist and Eternify begins automatically playing 30-second loops of the artist’s music, over and over again.
On the Eternify website it says that an average of $.005 is generated with each 30-second loop played. Why 30 seconds? Because that is the minimum length that Spotify counts as one “play.”
The whole idea is the brainchild of Ohm And Sport, a “band in beta” currently promoting their debut single which is — surprise, surprise — available on Spotify. Are they using Eternify themselves? They haven’t said, but considering they created it, we’ll assume they are.
“As young musicians, we’ve been deeply discouraged by music streaming’s growing reliance on algorithms and curation as a means for hyper-contextualized, endlessly novel, endlessly diversified listening,” reads a paragraph on the Eternify website. “As streaming becomes inseparable from music discovery, already-miniscule royalty payments are spread far too thinly for artists to benefit.”
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen someone trying to game Spotify’s system. Last year the band Vulfpeck released a silent album dubbed Sleepify, which it urged its fans to play at night as they slept, earning money for the band in the process. The album was released in March, and Spotify removed the album in May.
It remains to be seen if Spotify will move to put a stop to Eternify, but in the meantime, if you’ve ever wanted to do something to help out your favorite band, and if you’re not uncomfortable with the ethical implications, here’s your chance.
