Invest in Musicshed

My name is Dabi Adeyemi, and I'm a music creator and the founder of Musicshed. For 15+ years I've been involved in music as a songwriter, musician, producer, and artist, and like many, I've lived through the enormous changes in the music industry over the last two decades. Everything from the days of Napster to the streaming dominance of the present, We've all witnessed the rise and fall, the death and resurrection of an industry that has seen immense highs and lows brought on by digital innovation. Napster brought on a piracy age that just about obliterated the entire industry - all of a sudden, anyone could access music over the web without paying for it. And then around 2006 came the first of many music streaming services, making all things right again... or so we thought.

You see, music streaming had an answer for how the industry would combat illegal music sharing and thus recoup revenue. The many years of consumers sharing and downloading music for free cost the industry billions of dollars. So music streaming addressed it, admittedly in an economically adept way, and provided a solution so major record labels, streaming platforms, and the industry could establish preeminence. The music industry was back and better than ever! But unfortunately, music creators were neglected in a big way.

Music Creators Get the Short End of the Stick

While music streaming has revived the industry that is now worth $20+ billion and is currently generating $1 million per hour for major labels, it's creating very little revenue for music creators, especially independent artists. On average, music creators make $0.003 per stream. And when we take a closer look, we find a few reasons attributing to such low earnings for music creators. For example, when we examine $1 of revenue generated on Spotify and Apple Music, the breakdown looks like this:

Signed Artists

If a music creator is a signed artist, then most likely the label is the owner of the sound recording and the majority of the 58¢ or 58.5¢ shown above will go to the label. There are some cases where signed artists still own their sound recordings but for major labels, that is rare. Of course, the advantage of being a signed artist is getting financial and promotional power behind you to drive more streams and subsequently more revenue. A signed artist can make anywhere between 18.14¢ to 39.99¢ per dollar of streaming revenue. (manatt.com)

Unsigned Artists

Unsigned artists typically retain ownership of their music/sound recordings but do not reap the benefits of having a label pushing for more streams and revenue. Unsigned artists can make up to 64.17¢ per dollar of streaming revenue. (manatt.com) 

Unfortunately being signed or unsigned yields very few options for monetization, meaning most music creators find themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place. They may ask themselves, "Do I sign away my intellectual property and music ownership, or do I keep ownership and go at it alone?"

The Solution

As more and more unsigned artists are choosing to remain independent and "go at it alone," they need more monetization options to offset the advantages they would have gained from signing with a label. In the business world, the most successful companies have multiple ways of generating revenue. The same holds true for successful music creators. The ones who make the most money are the ones who've found ways to generate multiple revenue streams. Musicshed aims to do exactly that by empowering music creators to have additional monetization options to increase their chances of success. Our current beta is a mobile-first, free-to-use platform that allows music creators to upload their links, videos, and music, and use Musicshed as a social media bio link tool. Artists and music creators earn additional revenue by way of one-time and monthly recurring tips directly from their fans. Our post pre-seed iteration will give users the ability to mint, sell, and buy music NFTs, resulting in new revenue streams for artists and music creators.

Future iterations will introduce live-streaming events, fundraising campaigns, masterclasses, merch sales, ads, and brand sponsorships. Again, the more ways artists and music creators can generate revenue, the higher their chances of success.

Below are some visual demos of our free beta.

Why Now?

We are in the midst of unprecedented technological innovation. Blockchain, Web3, and NFTs are making their way into just about every creative industry and redefining what we thought was possible for artist monetization. In 2021, 1500+ new music NFT drops took place with $86M in primary sales. Additionally, 20+ new music NFT platforms were launched with several receiving funding. The time is right for disruption and Musicshed is determined to seize the opportunity of a lifetime in the lifetime of the opportunity.

Why Musicshed?

It's no secret that competition in the music NFT space is growing fast. However, Musicshed has a distinct advantage that the other music NFT marketplaces do not, and it's our business model.

Streaming Royalties Reimagined

Most if not all of the competitors that have emerged in the last 2 years who are utilizing NFTs for fan revenue sharing are doing so within the current streaming royalties system. For example, Royal.io, a platform that's raised $70M in funding and one of the first in the space, allows fans to purchase artist NFTs and receive a percentage of royalties that come from streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music. While this is a great way for artists to build community with their most enthusiastic fans, getting revenue shares from $0.003 per stream doesn't amount to much unless fans are purchasing NFTs from mainstream artists who regularly get hundreds of millions of streams. Therefore, this model can only work with major artists, which explains why Royal.io features the likes of Nas, Big Boi, and The Chainsmokers. But for the 99.8% of artists on Spotify that make less than $50,000 a year, sharing such a small piece of the pie with fans is neither lucrative nor incentivizing. So rather than creating an NFT marketplace as a commodity to the current system, our approach is to completely reimagine the streaming royalties system by building a new one. Instead of per-stream royalties, our new system will pay artists and music creators the majority of the revenue that's made from their music. And fans who purchase NFTs will get shares in a much bigger piece of the pie.   

What's Next?

I am seeking $200,000 to achieve the following milestones:   

• 8-12 months of runway
• Add Web3 functionality to current beta
• Product-market fit and de-risked business model
• Achieve $10k/mo MRR -or- $100k/yr in ARR -or- 1k/mo MAUs
• Prepare to raise seed round

Here's how we'll spend the $200,000:

• Runway - 40%
• User acquisition, marketing - 20%
• Operational expenses - 13.5%
• Product development - 20%
• Fees (WeFunder) - 6.5%

Who We Are

We are part of the Co-Media family, a media collective that uses storytelling and community building to produce original film and tv content and build new startups like Musicshed, whose mission is to reshape streaming royalties and help artists and creators get paid what they deserve. Co-media’s founders are Dabi Adeyemi and Lad Makinde.

See The Musicshed Pitch Deck HERE.