Yell Poop, Make Money

Leave it to kids and a weird set of circumstances to become an income stream for musicians out there. A fascinating story from Katie Notopoulos at Buzz Feed wherein people who make silly songs are earning streaming income by kids yelling "Poop" at Alexa.

With the proliferation of Echo devices putting Alexa in many homes, kids will yell silly things at it. Of course, kids think this stuff is funny, but when they issue this command, Alexa translates it into a request to play a song. With Amazon Music set as the default music service, it serves up songs like Joey Helpish's song “Poopy Stupid Butt.”

He added the song to Amazon Music, along with a bunch of other songs cowritten by kids from a music school he and his wife run in Oregon that specializes in working with autistic kids.

In 2019, Muir needed to pay some medical bills, and the couple was strapped. Helpish did the digital version of checking the couch cushions: He looked at his statement on Amazon Music — something he rarely did since it was only ever a few dollars. To his shock, his account had several hundred dollars in it — all from plays of “Poopy Stupid Butt.”

BuzzFeed

Sometimes being silly and creating things based on those ideas can have amazing results. For Helpish and others who make this music and post it online, they're seeing real returns on that work. As surprised as I am about this, I could only imagine the delight of being able to help pay some medical bills. All because kids love yelling "poop" at a black cylindar sitting in millions of homes.