It’s been a while and we’ve been hard at work preparing to make our vision a reality. We’ve clarified many things that were just vague aspirational directions last year and we’ve uncovered even more that are worth pursuing in order to achieve our mission.
We’re still in the business of redefining the future of music. We still want to bring music closer to the hearts of fans and, more recently, we realized that just setting out as a record label isn’t going to be enough.
Initially, we believed that the change we wanted to see in the music industry revolved around record labels: how they engage with artists and audiences, how they build and maintain fandom and community, how they monetize and how they manage. While this was definitely true in the industry of the past, we’re aiming to build the industry of the future. It is our humble opinion that this model is not future-proof. Instead, what the rise of streaming platforms, social media presence and entrepreneurial artists has proven repeatedly is that the future is decentralization, democratization and open dialogue between artists and fans.
Instead of launching as a music label for a digital age, we have decided to launch a digital platform that works for anyone, no matter which label they’re under – or none at all.
We don’t want to be in the business of writing representation contracts, rights breakdowns, marketing plans and appearance schedules. We want to be in the business of empowering artists to take control of those things themselves and decide for themselves – and for their fans – which are the parts that truly matter. The last thing we want is to end up being the “guys in suits” – just wearing more colorful suits and maybe some funky sunglasses.
We’ve given the above a great deal of thought and consideration, and decided to pivot our approach to entering the music industry. Instead of launching as a music label for a digital age, we have decided to launch a digital platform that works for anyone, no matter which label they’re under – or none at all.
Our platform, that we’re calling “Platform X” for now, will allow artists to have full control over their digital presence, their cash flow and their interactions with fans through an intuitive web interface. It will allow fans to discover, follow and engage with artists they would enjoy – as well as being able to support them financially in exchange for good-value rewards, digital products and merchandise. Overall, we expect it to hit on every pillar of our vision: an artist, big or small, will have complete control over their image and their voice, will be able to keep it all in one place – and get paid for the parts they enjoy the most. Simultaneously, a music fan will have a broad offering of music-related content and experiences full of depth and authenticity, some available for free and some fairly priced.
Platform X will also give us the tools we need to reward artists who interact consistently and genuinely with their fans, as well as fans who show a great deal of long-term engagement, creativity or originality. We intend to build a music community like never before, one that blends digital accessibility with old school heart and soul.
In terms of what’s next, we’re already moving. We’ve been working hard to come up with the look and feel of our platform’s prototype while simultaneously composing a development roadmap to track our features at launch as well as the near-future development trajectory. We’re very excited to get the MVP ready for launch and in the hands of artists and fans so that we can start that magical iterative process of feedback and continuous improvement.
For now we’ve changed the Our mission page to reflect the above and we’ve been hard at work planning features, strategy and next steps to make this a reality. Stay tuned for more updates as we build the future of music experiences together.
