In 2018, it’s much easier for up-and-coming creative artists to find their way to their audience with zero promotion budget and not being contracted with monopoly labels. Along with streaming services and indie labels, a completely new phenomenon is being introduced into the music industry: a community label named Younk.
It serves as promotional leverage for musicians enabling them to: keep control over production and sales; have direct access to listeners’ and experts’ feedback; own their creative product; protect authors’ rights.
As is clear from its definition – community label – the project aims to provide the advantages of collective ownership of musical products with no central distributor. The lion’s share of the profits from a skyrocketing track goes to the community and the artist, not the label. If now up to 83% of total revenue goes to big labels, and the musician has nothing more than 13% to gain, then in the case of the community label, the musician’s share almost doubles, and 55% of the total revenue goes to users who invest in the track.
Let’s see how it works:
1) you upload your demo;
2) the community listens to it and votes with likes;
3) if the demo receives a significant number of votes, it gets to crowdfunding;
4) the community finances your product collectively;
5) the track is produced, released and promoted;
6) finally, revenue is distributed by a smart contract which guarantees the process’ fairness and protects everyone involved from fraud. PROFIT!
It’s worth noting that one of the project’s founders is Don Grierson, an industry executive best known for receiving the Golden Apple Award from The Beatles and signing Celine Dion to her first US recording contract.
The project’s release is expected in October 2018 with its entry into the US and Japanese markets in 2019. Meanwhile, feel out your possibilities on the website younk.io.