High Time to Close the Value Gap in the Music Business

At the end of my first post The Baker Say’s, I included a list of key promises High Time will seek to deliver on, in the quest to bring about change within the music business toward creating a fairer, and more equitable situation for artists (and rights holders).

One of the biggest topics of debate within the music industry is the so-called 'value gap' - the difference between what artists and rights holders earn from streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube vs what these platforms generate in additional profits that can't directly be attributed towards specific music rights.

The tech companies argue that many of the revenue streams they are generating are unrelated and therefore not a topic of discussion when it comes to sharing these profits with artists and rights holders.

We can all agree, that music is one of the most desirable mediums of communication and connection on earth and so this argument fails to address the fact that much of the user base the tech companies have acquired have come from music being front and center of their platforms.

Further, the 'Big Machine AKA the traditional music industry', particularly the major record labels, has many ways of securing black box payments and generating other revenue streams through the exploitation of the artist rights they control and through leveraging the artist's audiences for their gains.

Other revenue streams they rarely, if ever, share with the artists themselves.

High Time aims to close the 'value gap' by providing a share of all profits, including from entirely unrelated income streams, back to the artists (creators and rights holders) who become part of the ecosystem we develop and create ahead.

By taking this approach, High Time will create the perfect environment for artists to thrive and increase their income.

This starts with fans of the artist who enter into the High Time ecosystem to become customers through direct transactions such as music-related products, tickets, merchandise, and subscriptions.

Through the creation of products and offerings that provide value to those customers - entirely unrelated to the music itself or the artists who create it - High Time will be in a position to provide artists with additional income toward helping them to have a viable career over the long term.

I believe that pioneering this approach, will lead to eventual changes across the entire music business toward closing the value gap for artists and rights holders at every level possible.

Missed my first and most important article? here’s the link to it: