SONGS was born out of a personal interest on finding ways to ease up the music models while providing fans with a potential economic incentive.
The current music industry is a closed system. Only record labels and distributors can financially and officially back artists. They do this through advances (money recouped later from the artist's earnings), essentially, labels are like venture capitalists funds that in order to find the gems in the industry they need to manage capital accordingly in potentials through a set of potential investments in which the vast majority fails. This forces them to impose hefty profit margins once they recoup their investment. On the other side, independent labels, limited by their network and capabilities, can only sign a select group of curated artists.
Meanwhile, many artists believe record labels hold the key to success, leading them to sign contracts with unfavourable terms in order to “be there”. This is further amplified for “auxiliary artists” (studio musicians, producers, filmmakers, sound engineers, etc.) who are often relegated to fixed fees despite their significant impact on a song's success. Both established and auxiliary artists lack transparency and control within the complex music industry.
The music business is a curating business first and an investment business after.
Finally, we have the music consumers, the ultimate decision-makers of an artist's success. There is literally active systems that sniff data live checking for active streams on any potential artist that suddenly pops out of the masses becoming a potential profitable investment. That data believe it or not has mainly to do with our customer likeness of a track or artist, and while us we are the main driver the end-customer is out of the main business aspect of music.
We've personally experienced every facet of the music industry, except music distribution. These companies collect music from artists and labels and distribute it to streaming platforms (DSPs). Ironically, despite this seemingly automated process, distributors now generate the highest profits within the industry. Additionally, each distributor negotiates its own terms with streaming services. This inconsistency makes it difficult to determine the true value of a song.