Ulyssa Records Is Looking for the Next Big Miss

Late last year, Spotify announced a plan to cease paying royalties for any song that had collected fewer than 1,000 streams over the previous 12 months. On social media, independent musicians and record labels reacted with the indignation you might expect to the new policy, which effectively declared a huge swath of the platform’s library to be worthless. “Starting in 2024, I’m removing any song that hasn’t had 1,000 plays from Spotify,” read one representative post, from the popular YouTuber and electronic musician Benn Jordan. “Very basic precedent here: Don’t let someone sell your music w/o paying you.”

Spotify’s decree resonated a little differently for John Williamson and Eric Deines, who run the tiny label Ulyssa. At a time when even the independent side of the music industry can seem to treat viral internet success as a top priority, Ulyssa is pointed squarely in the opposite direction. The label, which Williamson and Deines founded in Bloomington, Indiana, four years ago, specializes in music from below the 1,000-stream benchmark. The 2020 cassette compilation <1,000: Hotdogging and Peacocking Vol. 1, Ulyssa’s second release, was a trial balloon for their unconventional approach. It involves using a backdoor Spotify search function that Williamson discovered, which displays only results within that range, then listening through for stuff that transcends its humble origins.