I just came across this super interesting article from The Verge about an upcoming stream-to-own, online, music-store service:
Voltra’s desktop and mobile players — currently in beta testing — are free to download. Any users with a Voltra account can choose to either buy songs immediately or try out a new song with Voltra’s “stream-to-own” feature….
…this model offers listeners a low-cost way to figure out if they enjoy a particular song while also ensuring that artists earn money off the songs that get played the most…
This emphasis on lasting storage contrasts with subscription-based streaming services, where canceling your account comes with the risk of losing personally curated playlists and listening history….
Voltra aims to strengthen two facets of this artist-listener relationship: If music ownership is Voltra’s priority for listeners, sufficient compensation is the company’s goal for artists…
…artists who sign up directly through Voltra would receive 100 percent of their earnings, since the company doesn’t deduct a commission from their song profits… It’s also free for artists to upload their music to Voltra’s store. Voltra — which is not ad-supported — earns additional revenue from its sale of Pro Features to artists, labels, and distributors for five to ten dollars a month, offering musicians additional perks like customizable sales reports or a public artist page on the Voltra site.
…a musician can earn 99 cents after only 10 streams on Voltra, compared to 226 streams on Spotify, 134 on Apple Music, and 146 on Google Play. Spotify’s average payout per stream reportedly ranges from $0.006 to $0.0084, which is split among the the music’s various “rights holders,” meaning that 226 streams would yield about $1.50, of which the artist would receive some portion.
“I feel like it’s weird that [Voltra’s business model] is novel,” Fragomeni says, “but I really believe that it’s possible to have a sustainable business with really cool premium services where the ultimate ethical objective is to try to have the artists be paid.”
I am SO getting my music on this service!! Check it out and support this amazing artist-listener-relationship tool!
