Mouthwashing sound designer Martin Halldin is celebrating one million soundtrack streams on Spotify, but apparently he isn’t making a ton of money from the platform.
If you haven’t played it, Mouthwashing was one of my favorite games out of the February 2024 Steam Next Fest demo event, offering up a bleak and brutal meditation on death and a sharp rebuke of corporate bureaucracy. With the world in the state that it is currently, that probably doesn’t passionately inspire you to go pick up the game and play it, but it really is a fascinating li’l gem of an indie horror. Oh, and its soundtrack absolutely rips, as evidenced by one million streams on Spotify.
In a tweet, Halldin celebrated the accomplishment while jokingly lamenting Spotify’s famously stingy revenue share for artists and share-holders. “I can buy like two hot dogs with the revenue,” he said.
I can buy like two hot dogs with the revenue 😍 https://t.co/2dTKmFmsCuNovember 16, 2024
Halldin followed up that he currently hasn’t made anything from the Spotify streams because the company hasn’t reported back to the service he uses to distribute his music. He did estimate that in theory he could make around $4000 in total from the streams — “similar to a decent months salary,” but he clarified that “all of it goes back into Wrong Organ though because I want us to have a longer runway to make more stuff.”
My fellow horror sicko at GR+ Leon Hurley covered Mouthwashing a lot more extensively than I did in October, and I’d highly advise you read his follow-up if you’re at all intrigued. “It’s bleak, deep, and effortlessly stylish and the only way you’re going to find out what it says to you is by playing it,” he teased. “I hope it hurts.”
Here are the best horror games to scare yourself silly with.