SILENCE IS GOLDEN

Silence really can be golden, said Ed Payne in CNN.com. In March, Michigan-based indie band Vulfpeck set out to fund a free concert tour using royalties from the music streaming service Spotify. But since Spotify pays only a fraction of a cent each time a song is played, the band decided to get creative, releasing a completely silent, 10-track album called Sleepify and encouraging fans to stream it while they slept. Fans delivered, racking up roughly 4 million plays for a royalty total of $20,000. Trouble is, Spotify soon pulled the album for violating its terms of content, and it remains uncertain whether or not the band will be paid at all. But Vulfpeck is undeterred: Its latest release, Official Statement, includes a spoken-word explanation of the incident, followed by a 31-second silent track, “#Reflect,” allowing listeners to “ponder the uncertainty.”