Introduction

Music creation and distribution have been dramatically changed by technology in the last two decades. Creating music no longer requires a team of producers and audio engineers; anyone in their bedroom can start with inexpensive software. Similarly, distributing music no longer requires factories that produce physical records and retail relationships for getting those records into stores; music platforms have enabled artists to distribute their own music.

Though redundant in the age of digital distribution, the network of intermediaries and middlemen that formed in the early days of recorded music still persists, thriving on the back of artists and curators while the mechanics of value transfer and accrual are still largely obfuscated.

The music industry generated $43 billion in revenue but only 12% of that made its way to artists. As points of comparison, NFL players capture at least 47% of the revenue generated by the entire NFL, and NBA players capture between 49 and 51%. Centralized user-generated music distribution platforms have succumbed to the influence of legacy institutions, struggling to find sustainable business models as existing institutions reap the rewards of their (and artists’) labor.