Producer Clive Hunt Pleased With Streaming Numbers On New Sting Reggae Project

Veteran super-producer Clive Hunt is really proud of the release OF ‘Fields Of Gold: A Reggae Tribute To Sting’, an album which dropped on March 14 via Ineffable Records.

The projet includes songs voiced by Steel Pulse, Third World, Maxi Priest, The Skatalites, The Elovaters, JBoog, Big Youth, Kumar, Groundation and others.

“From the first time we discovered the Police, I loved them a whole lot, and Sting being an English youth, who grew up in an era where ska and reggae was a big part of the scene in the 60s and 70s. Sting is a great songwriter and a great musician. I have always liked his tremendous catalogue of music and I wanted to do his songs over in a reggae style,” Hunt said.

Hunt and Ineffable Records released a series of singles to drum up publicity for the album’s release. Last week, the legendary British reggae act Steel Pulse delivered the fifth and final single, a reggae cover of The Police’s hit song ‘So Lonely’ to rave reviews from music critics.

“Steel Pulse is one of the premier reggae talents of our generation and they did a fantastic job with ‘So Lonely’,” Hunt said.

The original ‘So Lonely’ single was re-released in the UK in February 1980, and reached No. 6 on the charts. The song used a reggae style, and featured Sting on lead vocals. Sting said he based the song on Bob Marley’s “No Woman, No Cry”.

Hunt was highly motivated to throw himself into this project with gusto because of his admiration for Sting. Hunt eventually teamed up with US-based indie label, Ineffable Records, whose top executives loved the idea and bankrolled the project.

“I am really pleased with how the whole project has unfolded,” Hunt said.

Hunt is feeling really great these days as it emerged this week that he has been selected as the cover artiste of Pandora’s reggae station – the biggest program for the genre on that platform.

“They have pinned ‘Every Breath You Take’ to the station which means that song will play first for listeners when they start listening to the station. This is significant and will drive a lot of listening and engagement with the song,” Hunt said.

Streaming platforms like Pandora become increasingly important to reggae artists since 80% the music industry revenue comes from streaming music royalties. The company is owned by satellite radio company SiriusXM Radio Inc. and makes up 1% of music streaming consumption.

Pandora pays only $0.00133 per stream, therefore artistes need 751,879 total plays on Pandora Premium to earn just $1,000.