How we fix the music industry.
I’ve realized recently that I suffer from setting lofty goals.
Anyways, here’s my plan to take over the music industry.
…. and give it back to you, the people.
Before I unveil the plan, it’s important to accurately understand the problem.
When you ask artists what’s wrong with the music industry, you’ll typically get one of two flavors of responses.
“Streaming made music worthless”
“Capitalism, bro”
But, as the last two decades have proved time and time again…real problems can’t be explained in 140 characters or less.
And while I understand the sentiment behind both of these explanations… they don’t tell the entire story. So allow me to add some much needed context…
“Streaming made music worthless”
Global recorded music revenue hit an all time high in 2023 (that’s a fact, go look it up).
Music is NOT worthless, it never has been, and it never will be.
So what really happened when streaming took over the music industry?
Well, first we need to understand that music - as a concept - is not a product at all.
It’s simply the marketing to sell the actual product.
In 1990, music was the marketing for physical pieces of vinyl.
In 2000, music was the marketing for compact discs (CDs).
In 2008, music was the marketing for mp3 files.
And in 2025… music is simply the marketing for streaming subscriptions.
Now…. notice the shift from 2008 to 2025. Suddenly, instead of artists relying on direct to consumer sales (AKA I sell you my $20 vinyl), they effectively leased their music to Spotify (for $0.003/stream), and allowed Spotify (and the other streaming platforms) to sell the new product, the streaming subscription.
And just like that, seemingly overnight, the artist lost autonomy in their ability to fund their own career.
Suddenly, artists found all of their music was marketing for the same product (streaming subscriptions)…. and it was one they barely got paid from selling.
(See this is way more than 140 characters 😬)
So streaming didn’t make music worthless, it simply took the product away from the artist.
“Ok Michael…. so doesn’t this just prove the point that capitalism is the problem?”
No, but give me a moment to breathe before I continue….
………..
….
……... cough ………
…………
……….. ok.
“Capitalism, bro”
Did Spotify and the tech overlords steal the only monetizable products away from artists?
Yes.
Did a bunch of venture capitalist vultures then proceed to take the profits for themselves instead of re-investing back into the actual artists whose back the platform was built on?
Sure.
Did the streaming platforms then cut deals with the major labels to effectively box out independent artists from getting traction organically.
Yes…. yes they did.
“So… Michael…. sweet boy…. how is capitalism not the problem?”
Well because capitalism is our last hope for taking the music industry back.
*gasp*
“BUT HOW MICHAEL!?”
Hold on to your underoos, I’m about to take you further down the rabbit hole.
Here’s the truth:
Capitalism, despite its many flaws, has one redeeming factor….
It’s incredibly predictable.
The same venture capitalists that are lining up to fund the streaming services and major labels would dump them in a heartbeat if they were no longer making money.
I know they may feel inevitable right now…
But I can assure you, during just 3 years on Wall Street, I saw multiple industries completely blow up and lose their access to funding, it just typically happens behind closed doors.
The only reason the machine has been able to run as long as it has, is because there hasn’t been a viable (and better) alternative to the music tech oligarchs.
And that’s for good reason… the more money they make, the more they invest in making it nearly impossible to compete. (example: Apple makes all of their products link together so seamlessly that switching to a Samsung feels impossible.)
So the solution here isn’t to build a better streaming platform…
To do that, I’d have to go raise billions of dollars from the same VC’s that are funding the exact people we’re up against… so that doesn’t work.
The solution is to create a new product category altogether…..
One that:
A) uses music as it’s marketing and
b) re-invests back into the artists instead of siphoning money out to shareholders
If done properly, we’d be able to create an alternate economy for artists that exists outside of the streaming bubble.
And, with time, reinvestment, and some TLC (the care, not the band)….
We could grow that economy enough to actually compete with the traditional music industry.
And as quickly as Marc Zuckerberg rebranded once he saw Trump was going to win the election…
The same venture capitalists, banks, and investors that have plowed money into the traditional music industry would start to dump (or at least reconsider) their investments.
“Well, that sounds like a nice idea… but who’s going to build that?”
Well, my sweet summer child, what if I told you we’ve already started.
THE SOLUTION:
So… let’s recap.
Music is an incredibly powerful form of marketing that traditionally fueled artist’s careers through direct-to-consumer sales before the streaming platforms captured the music industry by selling streaming subscriptions, effectively robbing artist of the ability to monetize their music.
Because the streaming platforms are beholden to VC’s, bankers, and investors… they squeeze artists to pay shareholders.
Therefore, to fix the music industry we must:
Find an alternative product to streaming that music can serve as an effective form of marketing for.
Establish a corporate structure that incentivizes re-investment in the artists rather than sucking money out of the system to pay shareholders.
“So Michael…….. what is it then?”
Well…. after all this hype now I’m nervous to actually share my solution.
I feel like I built it up to be this BIG THING.
…..
Maybe I’ll just save it for my next Substack………..
……
It’s education.
Education is the product.
Allow me to explain.
I spent the last four years building the online audio school, Mastering.com. The entire company was built on the belief that:
Traditional universities were no longer the best places to learn music production.
Traditional universities got greedy and outpaced the value of their own degrees.
Sounds kinda familiar, right?
So we built an online school that taught music production at a fraction of the price of the traditional universities.
And over the years, as more people started realizing that college was (kinda) a scam…
More and more money flowed into alternative education options like Mastering.com.
It’s why everyone and their sister is selling an online course right now…. the demand for alternative education is insane, it’s just largely unorganized.
But alternative education is the alternate economy that allows us to challenge traditional education (and their $200,000 degrees).
And now alternative education will be how we challenge the traditional music industry.
You see… music is great marketing for vinyls, CD’s, and streaming subscriptions…
But behind every great song is an artist with incredible skills.
Skills that can be shared and taught.
And, from my time at Mastering.com, I knew that there was also a lot of money in sharing these skills.
So… we created a new product.
Instead of our record label selling vinyl, CD’s, or streaming subscriptions…
We sold education.
We started letting students sit in on label meetings to learn about artist development and business.
We started letting students shadow live songwriting sessions so they could learn how our artists' practice the art of songwriting.
Our producer started live-streaming the recording of new music so our students could learn how music is created in the studio.
And... it started working.
We found that we could fund artists entire careers simply by allowing students to learn from them in real time.
And thus, the first fully education-funded record label, MAD Records, was born.
But unlike the big streaming platforms, we don’t have shareholders (outside of our producer, artist, and engineer), we don’t have any debt….
We have an open road where the only way we can make more money is by investing in more independent artists.
And no….. education isn’t as sexy or mysterious as we often want the music industry to be.
But we’ve tapped a revenue stream that allows us to invest in artists, without having to spend billions building a streaming platform to compete with the big boys.
And it’s my hope that other independent labels will copy our model…..
…..and together we can reclaim the music industry from the streaming platforms, and return it to the incredible artists that have been in the shadows for much too long.
Long live good music.
Long live MAD Records. 🫡⚔️
Michael
