Years in the making - I built a music discovery platform for independent artists and music lovers

Hello all! I'm a Gen X indie artist who has endured the pains of the ever-changing traditional music industry first-hand. It used to be that for the average artist, industry gatekeepers controlled access to record deals, marketing budgets and large scale distribution of physical albums.

In today's landscape, music distribution is no longer the problem; now its over-saturation and lack of monetization opportunities due to its non-tangible format, low barrier of entry to the major digital streaming platforms and their "pro-rata" payout system, where all music usage and royalty payments are aggregated across the platform and paid out disproportionately to artists on major labels. On average, indie artists with a small to medium-sized fanbase will earn a fraction of a penny (.004) per stream, and in most cases, will not surpass 10,000 streams a year (do the math). This leaves an entire demographic of artists with no direct access to monetize their art effectively. It also encourages artists to mimic the styles of existing, seemingly successful artists in a desperate attempt for financial gain instead of prioritizing creative expression and authenticity - thus cheapening the sound and integrity of the entire music industry as a result.

Enter What's Next Radio, a community-driven music discovery platform where artists upload their songs, listeners vote on what gets promoted to the rotation, and every song we stream multiplies in value with each listener. A song streamed on our station to 10,000 simultaneous listeners = 10,000 streams for the artist. Our democratic voting process allows for quality music to organically rise to the top of the charts while artists earn meaningful revenue and listeners discover their favorite new music!

This project is my baby and has been in the works for years. Due to the current state of the music industry, now is a critical time for a tool such as this for indie artists to empower themselves and take control of their own destiny.

I'd love to hear your feedback! Please feel free to sign up and let me know your thoughts.