One of the most astonishing phenomena on the music streaming providers’ platforms is the obviously great interest among listeners in simple noises: waves, thunderstorms, rain – or just: noise. The latter can easily be generated on the computer; some people simply record a running hairdryer and upload the recording to Spotify or Deezer as “white noise”. There is also pink or brown noise that emphasizes lower frequencies and may sound like waves or rain. Some of the pieces on offer now have hundreds of millions of streams. Sometimes entire podcasts are also offered: the noise can last for several hours at a time.
Now music history certainly knows avant-garde artists who knew how to fill entire CDs with sophisticated noise compositions. But this is about concentrated monotony, which is not intended to impress the listener, but – according to the theory – is intended to increase concentration or make it easier to fall asleep. It’s possible that the streams have this effect on some people. Of course, they have a different kind of effect on those who create them: Because the noise streams are paid for in the same way as music, despite the less effort involved in producing them, the noise business is likely to be lucrative, at least for some. Too lucrative – Spotify now decided. Because resourceful providers have found a way to max out the system. For example, you string together pieces in playlists that, at 31 seconds, are just about the minimum length for a stream. What may sound like a long piece to the listener is actually many short ones – and Spotify pays out some money for each one. From the company’s point of view, this is a “perverse incentive”, especially since the noise tracks often run for hours. This can add up to quite impressive amounts. An industry newsletter from the Bloomberg agency cited noise podcasts as an example of success, making $18,000 a month thanks to advertising revenue.
Now Spotify is changing the system. Individual noise streams then have to be listened to for at least two minutes before any money flows. In addition, they should only be paid a fraction of the previous amount. It should already be right at the limit of what can be measured. Experts vaguely estimate that an average of perhaps 0.003 cents is currently paid out for a stream – there is no clear amount. The only thing that is clear is that in the future a hairdryer will have to run for a very long time before some money is raised.
By the way, its competitor Deezer is taking even tougher action against noise streamers and artificially generated music than Spotify. Because the French streaming provider sees the flood of content that was created “without significant commitment” as a threat to its current business model, it should disappear from the platform completely. Almost at least. There should still be noises, but Deezer wants to produce them themselves.