Kids Yell “Poop” At Alexa, And These Musicians Profit
For a while, the couple made about $100 a month singing, and then Covid hit. Kids don't have homework and distracted parents are more willing than ever to let their children play with electronic devices. Streams of "Puppy Stupid Butt" on Amazon have skyrocketed, and it's now played nearly 10 million times on Amazon Music, bringing Helpish and Muir's total to $10,000.
Amazon did not respond to a request for comment on whether it knows how often children yell at Alexa. A Spotify spokesperson said they were unable to determine the game's modus operandi. While there is no conclusive evidence that Amazon knew these songs were performed by children talking to Alexa, I believe there is substantial factual evidence. Amazon Music, which has a smaller share of the US streaming market than Spotify, is a major source of revenue for artists like Helpish, suggesting Alexa is likely behind gaming. Live experience tells me that kids love asking Alexa to play poop.
Play counts are visible on Spotify but not on Amazon Music, but Spotify play counts are useful for making some generalizations about which artist songs are "hits" (it's possible to link your Spotify account to Amazon's default music service). Alexa, but I guess it is (many Alexa device owners change their settings (don't bother, especially if they're not used for listening to music). One discovery on Spotify is that it's not just about asking English-speaking kids let them “poop” – over 1 million songs for a French song called “La Chanson du poop.” There's the current, prompting kids in France to call Alexa “uncle.” Very funny.
Matt Farley is a very prolific songwriter who has mastered the art of SEO songs. He wrote more than 23,000 songs, which were often very short and contained phrases and names, many familiar names, common names. And incredibly, it's a healthy business model: Farley can make a decent profit from her catalogue. (Disclosure: She wrote the song "Katie Notopoulos Is a Gifted Writer, Yes" in 2014, but as a gifted writer I won't let that accolade tarnish my reporting.)
In a large collection of songs covering a wide range of topics, all of his greatest hits are scatological in nature. His biggest hit is the song Poop Poop Poop Poop.
The songs are surprisingly good; He makes different styles of music. Farley jokes; He knows it's funny. You can see his SEO game lyrics as a cynical icon, or you can see his work as a work of art that spans decades and comments on the nature of technology's impact on art in the age of capitalism.
Farley, who writes under the names Artist's Toilet Cleaners and Weird Man Who Sings About Poop, Puke and Pee, has many songs about this particular human experience. A 2021 profile of Farley on Debugger notes that when he saw a trend in song popularity, he assumed it was due to kids logging into their parents' Spotify accounts and writing bad songs.
However, when I spoke to Farley on the phone from her home in Massachusetts, I pointed out that preschoolers actually call Alexa-enabled devices "noses." The theory made sense to him; in fact, it matched the data you were looking at.
