Photo Credit: Rhythmic Rebellion
The following comes from Rhythmic Rebellion, a company DMN is proud to be partnering with.
My name is Greg Allen. I’ve heard through one of your team members that, a few years ago, you wanted to build your own platform that consisted of music and video streaming, a merch store, and other things. My team and I have made your dreams come true! We call it Rhythmic Rebellion.
We have a great software team that specializes in music and video streaming. We built the perfect music marketplace with great community-building tools. We’ve built a foundation with lots of flexibility and can build anything we can dream up on top of it.
On-demand music streaming is great, right? Well, indie artists and songwriters complain a good bit, but the real losers are…Spotify, Apple, Google, and Amazon. As a singer/songwriter myself, I’m happy to see streamers pay out the most they can to copyright owners, but where does it end? On-demand streaming royalties are squeezing so much cash out of Spotify that they’re always bleeding red ink. They just can’t seem to make a profit.
And the copyright owners continue to win royalty rate increases. Apple, Google, and Amazon also want to make money with their projects. I would be surprised if they’re doing much better than breaking even with music streaming. It’s hard to make a profit when your biggest expense is based on your revenue. The more money you bring in, the more you owe. I bet Daniel Ek never imagined that on-demand streaming would cost him so much.
So what is the future of music? No one is really sure, but we all agree that, at some point, something new will evolve. My idea was not to compete with Spotify but to be innovative and develop new entertainment that fans would be willing to pay for to help increase artist, label, songwriter, and publisher income. Something that benefits the whole music industry. We want to be the platform for the biggest artists on the planet and new artists alike. We want to be a platform where the music industry helps decide the rules and the direction. We want everything we do to be in the best interest of the music creators and their teams.
The artist gets their stems from the studio and uploads them to our software. The fan can then solo, mute, L/R, and change the volume of each track/stem. They can save their new version to their playlist and hear it later when working on homework or driving. We have a scrolling lyric creator so fans can easily sing along. The artist attaches the instrumental track, and with the tap of one button, the fan can sing karaoke in their bedroom.
Artists can offer to sell fans access to the original song, the karaoke track, and a 10-track stem player, all in one bundle. Now that’s a reason to buy an album. Plus, offer a CD or vinyl copy bundled with it, and the fan gets instant listening while waiting for their physical version. Sounds like something Jack White would be interested in.
Patreon is great, but why send your fan to another site? You want to build your community all in one place. So we built fan clubs where you can offer a free membership, or two subscription levels. The artist can post exclusive music, videos, merch, and offer other benefits like early access to tickets or special livestream events. For fans that don’t want to subscribe, we offer a single payment access to exclusive content, branded the Artist Premiere.
Fans have accounts where all their purchases are stored. They sign up once and can buy items from any or many artists on the platform, all in one checkout. They can build playlists and stream the music they bought. They can log into the app with the same credentials and instantly see their purchases. We send automatic emails when items are purchased. We offer email support and a knowledge base.
As stated earlier, community building is a must. Facebook and Instagram have changed the rules. Artists and their teams constantly complain that their posts are being shown to less than one percent of their followers. Solution? As soon as you get the fan’s attention on one of the social platforms, give them a reason to go to your page on RR and join your community. Your merch store comes with a gift code generator. You can use it for discounts on merch, or to give things away. Fans love free stuff. You can offer access to a MxRR, music, or karaoke. You can offer free access to exclusive videos and music inside the Artist Premiere. It’s all digital so it costs you nothing. The artist account comes with its own artist-to-fan emailing system.
Scott, you have a business relationship with Hybe, the BTS music label. Therefore you know about their WeVerse apps. Our apps are like WeVerse in that fans can comment on music and videos and shop, plus we focus on community building. We are also working on a way for artists to message fans inside our system, so no worries about getting trapped in ‘email spam filters.’ We will also create ways for fans to chat about their favorite artist, music, videos, or merch. We want to build a place where fans can be entertained for hours, with fun things to buy peppered all around.
Maybe our platform could be the first platform to pay streaming royalties from the profits… profit sharing. If company investors, employees, management, and the copyright owners all split the profits, with the copyright owners getting the bulk of it, that would be a company where everyone was working together to reach a common goal. We have lots of ideas for generating revenue that Spotify can’t do. Plus, we keep our expenses low.
Music creators sign our agreements and choose if they want to be part of our streaming platform. We can offer the option for on-demand streaming or to be part of a channel stream that is not on-demand which helps increase album sales. That’s an on-demand music streaming model that could survive and thrive.
Maybe the future of music will copy the movie industry? We thought Netflix was the king, but Disney and the others decided they could build their own streaming platforms and not have to negotiate with Netflix. What if Spotify decided to play hardball and threatened to stop on-demand streaming unless Universal Music Group accepted a lower royalty rate? Would UMG have any options? What if they could offer subscription-only access to all their artists, where the fan gets access to tons of exclusive music, video, merch, and lots of ways to engage with artists and other fans? UMG could still have the Spotify income but add their RR income to it. Their subscribers would login through the UMG portal, and the Rhythmic Rebellion software would only show UMG artists, content, and merch.
They can offer exclusive videos and interviews. They can build music streaming channels like you find on SiriusXM, like the Dave Matthews Band Channel. Or it can be based on a genre, and you hear the artists introduce songs and offer commentary. This would be the Ultimate Entertainment and Shopping Experience for those fans. I think they would pay $19 a month for access to this kind of exclusive entertainment. Of course, UMG would set the pricing. They would be in complete control of all the content. The platform retains 15% of digital sales and 5% of physical. We will award points each time content is enjoyed, and those points will determine how much money UMG will pay each copyright owner. We already have a great accounting and payments system, and our artists get most funds within just a few days.
We have built a foundation that contains everything needed to make any ideas we have become reality. We can be the future of music. We can participate in NFTs and the Metaverse. We can try any ideas we want, but our foundation of music, video, and merch selling mean we are in it for the long haul, regardless of what fads we see come and go. Plus, our plans for community building, where the artist and label own the fan, means you never have to worry about your fans being taken from you again.
Scott, join us and help us finish building this place where we all feel like we are on the same team and all working for a common goal. A place where new artists and superstars all feel treated fairly and that their best interest comes first. Email me at [email protected].
Here are three examples of artists using our platform. KarenWaldrup.com, RickyRebelRocks.com, RayScott.com. Rhythmic-Rebellion.com is new music and video discovery.
Learn more at https://insight.rhythmic-rebellion.com/offer
