Matt Farley Tries to Match Every Search Term on Spotify

The New York Times

Brett Martin, writing for the New York Times:

Largely, though not entirely, on the strength of such songs, Farley has managed to achieve that most elusive of goals: a decent living creating music. In 2008, his search-engine optimization project took in $3,000; four years later, it had grown to $24,000. The introduction of Alexa and her voice-activated sistren opened up the theretofore underserved nontyping market, in particular the kind fond of shouting things like “Poop in my fingernails!” at the computer. “Poop in My Fingernails,” by the Toilet Bowl Cleaners, currently has over 4.4 million streams on Spotify alone. To date, that “band,” and the Odd Man Who Sings About Poop, Puke and Pee, have collectively brought in approximately $469,000 from various platforms. They are by far Farley’s biggest earners, but not the only ones: Papa Razzi and the Photogs has earned $41,000; the Best Birthday Song Band Ever, $38,000; the Guy Who Sings Your Name Over and Over, $80,000. Dozens of others have taken in two, three or four digits: the New Orleans Sports Band, the Chicago Sports Band, the Singing Film Critic, the Great Weather Song Person, the Paranormal Song Warrior, the Motern Media Holiday Singers, who perform 70 versions of “We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” substituting contemporary foods for figgy pudding. It adds up. Farley quit his day job in 2017.

Eight Years.

Chorus White Logo

I officially launched Chorus on April 1st, 2016. That means today is our eight year anniversary. By most estimates, I started AbsolutePunk in 1999. So, the first “era” was 1999 to 2008 when the company was purchased by Spin. About 9 years. The Spin era then lasted from 2008 to 2016. Eight years. I’ve now run Chorus roughly the same amount of time as I ran AbsolutePunk during its growing phase and then its explosive phase.

Wild.

Thanks for being along for the ride. I can say without a shadow of doubt that these last eight years have been the most rewarding of my internet life. We’re not the biggest website in the world, but I have a space to write and talk about music and other things I love, every single day. And that’s exceptionally fulfilling. Also, a special thank you to everyone who is a supporting member of this website for helping us continue to do what we do.

New Interview with Dave Baksh

Sum 41

Dave Baksh of Sum 41 talked with Rodeo Magazine:

“I always think of [All Killer No Filler] as a boot camp in songwriting, and how to play guitar,” Dave recalls. “We had a producer on that record named Jerry Finn. I think the biggest mistake we made in our career was not working with him on every single record. He had such a great vibe in the studio and was such a great teacher. He sat me down and told me I was a garbage guitar player and I needed to get better. He taught me the art of treating every section – whether it be four bars, twelve bars, whatever – as a composition in itself, and you deliver that performance in whatever pocket that is.”