After speaking out against streaming inequalities for artists in the current landscape, James Blake is taking his passion one step further after announcing the launch of Vault, a new platform for sharing unreleased music with fans through a streaming service. subscription.
Vault, Blake says, is a platform for artists to “make money directly from the music they make,” allowing them to cut out the middleman and avoid contracts that often prevent them from releasing their music. It's also a solution for record labels that take the lion's share of song royalties and social media platforms like TikTok, which he says “don't pay properly.”
If we want quality music, someone will have to pay for it. Streaming services don't pay adequately, record labels want a bigger cut than ever and just sit back and wait for you to go viral, TikTok doesn't pay adequately, and touring is becoming prohibitively expensive for most artists.
-James Blake (@jamesblake) March 3, 2024
“About a week ago I went viral with a post about the effects of streaming and TikTok on artists' ability to support themselves,” Blake said in a video he shared ahead of the platform's launch. “I wanted to give you some numbers. This is what artists earn from streaming: between $0.0003 and $0.0005 per stream, depending on the platform. That is, one million views is equivalent to $3,000. If you are signed to a label , imagine that “The number is reduced by at least 50%. And after the management cut, which is between 15 and 20%, plus taxes and recording overhead, it is simply not sustainable for an artist to focus only on the art of it.”
Blake also hopes that Vault will eliminate some of the bureaucracy involved in releasing music and eliminate the need to develop TikTok campaigns to gain recognition. The goal is to redirect musicians' attention toward their art rather than forcing them to give up their time and creativity in favor of exhaustive (and often fruitless) marketing.
“Most musicians are not extroverts and are social media and branding geniuses, least of all me. And I wanted to find a way for musicians to make money directly from the music they make, among other things so they could reinvest in the such an expensive process of renting studios, hiring musicians, etc.,” he continued. “I've talked to a lot of artists who are frustrated that so much good music isn't released because it doesn't meet certain requirements or trends.”
Check out Blake's announcement below and learn more about Vault here.
Ok, for the first time I'm going to release from my vault of unreleased music.
we are launching @vaultdotfm Show that music has inherent value beyond mere exposure.
Subscribe to unlock 👇 pic.twitter.com/pIic7Ef47G
-James Blake (@jamesblake) March 20, 2024
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