The people being scammed here are the other musicians. Spotify isn't paying more in total royalties, it's just paying less to other artists.
Good job!
How to Make Money from Spotify by Streaming Silence
41–50 of 64 posts
Re: How to Make Money from Spotify by Streaming Silence
#42As a huge fan of John Cage, I feel obligated to point out that this is not "scamming" - it is a true performance of a musical work[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4%E2%80%B233%E2%80%B3 John Lennon and Yoko Ono also did "Two Minutes of Silence"[1], which was later covered by Soundgarden as "One Minute of Silence" on the album Ultramega OK (they didn't like Yoko Ono's minute, so they only covered Lennon's[2].) As Deb…
Really, the scam is not the silent tracks--the scam is encouraging your fans to repeatedly play the tracks when they're not actually listening.
Re: How to Make Money from Spotify by Streaming Silence
#43And what would you say if YOU were Spotify? "Damn cheaters!!"
Re: How to Make Money from Spotify by Streaming Silence
#44This makes my product harder.
I am recording a lot of "record player noise" (stylus on vinyl; run-out grooves and clicks; run-in grooves; clunking arms and needle drops; etc.
People download (or rip) their music as high quality lossless flac. They then mix my recorded record noise in, with other processing ("bad 80s digital amp"; "good 90s hifi amp"; "valve amp" etc) to get the vinyl experience with modern computing convenience.
Having the distribution of near silent tracks being scrutinised is going to be gently worrying.
Re: How to Make Money from Spotify by Streaming Silence
#45As a huge fan of John Cage, I feel obligated to point out that this is not "scamming" - it is a true performance of a musical work[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4%E2%80%B233%E2%80%B3 John Lennon and Yoko Ono also did "Two Minutes of Silence"[1], which was later covered by Soundgarden as "One Minute of Silence" on the album Ultramega OK (they didn't like Yoko Ono's minute, so they only covered Lennon's[2].) As Deb…
Really, the scam is not the silent tracks--the scam is encouraging your fans to repeatedly play the tracks when they're not actually listening.
Simple fix: "The low level noise caused by my speakers being powered but not making noise helps my sleep similar to a white noise machine."
Re: How to Make Money from Spotify by Streaming Silence
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
In my case it's more like "I wonder..." fueling innovation. But I'm also too lazy to try it, but if anyone else wants to give it a go and they end up making a profit, please send me along a 5% "idea man" fee :-) On a more serious note, I wonder if this is something that Spotify already tries to detect? Or if it's such a ludicrous idea that they just assumed no one would really try it?
> In my case it's more like "I wonder..." fueling innovation. You put the wrong part in scare quotes. The word you're looking for is "arbitrage," not "innovation." Some guy figured out that Spotify pays more to send data than Amazon charges to accept and discard it. Eventually Spotify will pay someone to reject this particular scam, then to reject more sophisticated versions, then to reject legitimate songs that look…
the quotes around "I wonder" aren't scare quotes, they're just quotes.
Re: How to Make Money from Spotify by Streaming Silence
#47What's the point of silent tracks? The same effect can be accomplished by just turning the volume down all the way. They could encourage people to play their real tracks without volume or with speakers unplugged without making it so obvious they are trying to game the system.
Re: How to Make Money from Spotify by Streaming Silence
#48Perhaps this is why Pandora has the annoying "I'm still listening" button, so they don't have to pay out royalties on things their users aren't listening to.
Somewhat related: It's also probably why services like Netflix have the same thing built in ("I'm still watching" button after watching like 3 episodes of a show without clicking buttons), so some bot computer doesn't just stream and record everything.
Hulu has it too, IIRC.
Also - if you are a real human but fell asleep or walked out of the house/room.
Re: How to Make Money from Spotify by Streaming Silence
#49Probably more effective all around to turn your device off instead, and when you get your electricity bill, which will be a few cents cheaper as a result, send the band half the difference.
It takes a very small amount of electricity to power a smart phone. Yes, you're using more energy by streaming music, but it can't be that much more.
http://lifehacker.com/5948075/how-much-energy-a-smartphone-u...
Re: How to Make Money from Spotify by Streaming Silence
#50What's the point of silent tracks? The same effect can be accomplished by just turning the volume down all the way. They could encourage people to play their real tracks without volume or with speakers unplugged without making it so obvious they are trying to game the system.
The purpose of the silent tracks is to generate publicity. This is not a genuine attempt to conduct a scam. It also makes it convenient if spotify docks them for the bogus plays. Finally this way they can see if their actual tracks are gaining popularity, which is the whole goal.