LA musicians Vulfpeck have done a John Cage and released Sleepify to fund an upcoming tour
Over the past year, Spotify has been at the forefront of conversation in the music world, with giants such as David Byrne and Thom Yorke speaking out against the unfair payment infrastructures at the online streaming service.
However, an LA band called Vulfpeck have manipulated the royalties system to their advantage and released what they believe to be "the quietest album ever recorded". As in, it's an album of total silence.
The concept behind Sleepify is simple. On the record there are 10 short tracks of silence, so you can "listen" to it in all its glory while you sleep. The band reckons that people can stream the 376-second album enough times during an eight-hour sleep period to earn them $4 in royalties, in turn funding their US tour. Even though the album is just silence, they're particular about how it's listened to – under no circumstances should Sleepify be shuffled.
please don't "shuffle" sleepify. i know this might come of snobbish, but we spent a lot of time on track order.
— Vulfpeck (@vulfpeck) March 12, 2014
Streaming darklords Spotify are taking it all in good grace though. "This is a clever stunt, but we prefer Vulfpeck's earlier albums," a Spotify spokesperson told Digiday.
The piece is reminiscent of experiment composer John Cage's legendary work "4'33", which consists of a pianist simply going to the piano and not hitting any keys, with conductor, orchestra and audience all in tow.
You can watch Vulfpeck explain how it all works here:
You can stream Sleepify below and help Vulfpeck realise their ambition of touring across the US. Which one's your favourite track?
