(We originally posted this in 2020. You can read more of our original ideas in our archive.)
Problem: Supporting your favorite artist is extremely difficult: Spotify gives cents for every minute listened and the old model of paying for individual songs is no longer popular or supported on platforms.
Solution: This business would give artists a way to release their “throwaways” (aka the songs that they don’t put on their albums because they’re not the best) at a high price for super fans via mediums like vinyl. In short, it would allow artists to make money from content driven by limited release (which also feeds into the “drop mentality” that has propelled brands like Supreme and Hypebeast to popularity). One of the business’ main problems to fight would be how to ensure that “dropped music” is not shared broadly beyond the exclusive audience of this luxury music platform. Artists would sell these individual releases for $10, $15, or more depending on their popularity: it would be more art than utility.
One example of a record that would be extremely profitable through a platform like this could be Kanye West’s lost ‘Yeezus’ tapes. As written by Complex on September 18, 2020,
Buried in a fairly long and boring outline of a so-called P&D (production and distribution) deal, there’s an interesting tease. In addition to a new album after the release of Yeezus, Kanye is given the option to release an album of “previously recorded, unreleased” songs, which the contract tentatively titles the Lost Yeezus Tapes. Obviously, this never happened and Ye went straight on through to TLOP. But the mere mention of lost music from the Yeezus sessions has given hope to Kanye obsessives everywhere that such recordings actually exist and may see the light of day in the future.
For Kanye, there has always been speculation of unreleased albums. However, every artist has unrelease music and albums, even jazz legend John Coltrane. I remember first reading the New York Times story on June 7, 2018. As reported by Giovanni Russonello,
On Friday, Impulse! will announce the June 29 release of “Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album,” a full set of material recorded by the quartet on a single day in March 1963, then eventually stashed away and lost. The family of Coltrane’s first wife, Juanita Naima Coltrane, recently discovered his personal copy of the recordings, which she had saved, and brought it to the label’s attention.
There are seven tunes on this collection, a well-hewed mix that clearly suggests Coltrane had his sights on creating a full album that day. From the sound of it, this would have been an important one.
Coltrane’s “new” music had been recorded more than 50 years earlier and left ripples in the jazz world. Just take a listen at how modern Coltrane’s Untitled Original 11383 sounds (and looks!) The idea of releasing unreleased music as a luxury would create a legendary and unique secondary market.
Some companies have already started monetizing music in more artists friend ways like what I’ve suggested. Bandcamp is one of them. As described by LA Times on September 22,
The platform [Bandcamp], with its artist-first business model, has since its birth in 2008 become a player in the music streaming wars by celebrating niche communities while promising a radically transparent approach to royalties.
…
Born in Oakland with profits in part from the sale of an email start-up company, Bandcamp has thrived during a moment when the challenges facing musicians couldn’t be greater. Starved of road money and feeling abused or ignored by major services such as Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora and YouTube that pay fractions of a penny per spin, artists have flocked to Bandcamp and fans have followed. Launched as a digital music site, it has since become a merchandising powerhouse, connecting listeners with vinyl, CDs, cassettes and T-shirts.
Just in the United States, the music industry is large and is growing: “According to IFPI Global Music Report 2016, the industry generated $4.898 billion in 2015 and was ranked the largest music industry in the world. The Recording Industry Association of America states that the industry grew by 11.4% in 2016 reaching $7.7 billion. Growth in the music industry is due to increased consumption of digital music, particularly online streaming. The industry is characterized by live concerts, studio recordings, and a variety of music genres.” More modern statistics can be found below:
Monetization: Percentage of sales through the platform.
Contributed by: Michael Bervell (Billion Dollar Startup Ideas)