Unlabel for Artists

The industry is rigged against you. We're changing that.

The Problem

Universal, Sony, and Warner control 84% of the global recorded music market. Without connections, funding, or backing from one of these gatekeepers, breaking through is nearly impossible.

Streaming platforms use a pooled royalty model, not a direct-payment model. Spotify collects all subscription revenue, deducts 30% for operations, and distributes the remaining 70% based on your share of total platform streams not based on which listeners actually care about your music.

Your fan's $11.99/month doesn't fund you. It gets pooled and distributed to mega-artists they've never heard. You could be getting subsidized by listeners who've never played your music, while your actual fans' payments go to Crystal Waves.

The Reality (at $0.003-$0.005 per stream)

$1,000
annual income
= 250,000 streams
$10,000
annual income
= 2.5 million streams
$75,000
median US income
= 250 million streams

61% of artists on Spotify earned less than $10,000 in 2023. Spotify's 1,000-stream minimum threshold means tracks below this generate zero royalties, demonetizing 86% of the platform's library.

And You Pay to Participate

DistroKid
$25-$83/year
TuneCore
$22.99-$49.99/year
CD Baby
$9.95-$49/release

For a prolific artist releasing 12 singles and 2 albums annually, distribution costs total $82-$180/year, a 5-20% tax on every dollar you earn from streaming.

How Unlabel Changes Everything

Unlabel is a permissionless artist capital market plus streaming home. When you launch your token, fans buy it directly, and holding your token is how they stream your entire catalog, past and future. No monthly treadmill. No pooled revenue. No intermediaries.

The Economic Difference

Spotify
1.5-5 million streams
to earn $7,500-$25,000
Unlabel
500 superfans
paying $15-$25 = $7,500-$25,000

Each fan's investment is direct: their money funds you, period. No competing in Spotify's pro-rata pool.

Why Artists Choose Unlabel

Immediate Capital

Raise money from day one. Unlike streaming (which requires millions of plays for anything meaningful), Unlabel lets you monetize instantly. Early supporters become investors in your career, real capital hitting your account the moment people believe in your potential.

Built-In Distribution

"Being early" is culturally valuable in underground music. Unlabel makes it financially valuable too. When discovery becomes profitable, people post you, argue for you, recruit friends, because they benefit when others buy in. Your listeners become your evangelists.

Two-Phase Growth

Pre-graduation: Cheap entry, steep curve, meant for early believers and risk-takers. Post-graduation: Stable pricing, membership-like. Your earliest fans get best prices, later fans still get fair access.

You Define Perks

Top 100 holders get early concert tickets. Earliest holders get first access to new music. Longest holders get backstage passes. These aren't generic NFT promises, they're real artist-to-fan connections backed by verifiable onchain data.

Solve Real Problems

Kill Scalpers

Ticket scalping captures $3.4+ billion annually in secondary-market markups (49-1,000% over face value) that flows nowhere, not to you, not to venues, just to reseller networks.

With Unlabel, reserve early ticket drops exclusively for token holders. Your real fans get first access at face value. No bots, no scalpers, no dynamic pricing. Shows become better because your audience actually knows your music.

Permanent Legacy

Your music lives on Irys, a permanent storage network. Your catalog is preserved forever, verified onchain, and doesn't disappear if a platform dies or changes policy.

That's legacy protection that centralized platforms never offer. Your art outlives corporate decisions.

How It Works

01

Create Your Token

Set up your artist profile and launch through our fair-launch model. No pre-sales, no insider advantages. Token entry price starts at $0.01-$0.05, cheap enough for believers, steep enough to reward early faith.

02

Upload Your Music

Add your tracks and albums. Token holders get exclusive streaming access to your entire catalog. It's truly permissionless, no approval needed, no gatekeepers.

03

Graduate & Scale

Hit the $50,000 USDC migration threshold and your token graduates to a more stable pricing curve. Early supporters got in cheap, new fans get predictable access. Everyone wins.

The Superfan Economy Is Real

$1,000+
Annual spend by superfans on music (3.6-6x more than casual listeners)
$64-$67
Average merch spend per concert attendee (23% purchase rate)
+61%
YoY growth in K-pop fan spending ($48.32 per attendee)

Unlabel doesn't ask fans to spend more, it asks them to spend intentionally. Instead of $11.99 spread across 400 artists, they pay once for your token and stream you forever. People pay $500 for concert tickets, they'll pay $20 for lifetime access to an artist they believe in.

Ready to go independent?

No gatekeepers. No label cuts. No algorithmic favoritism. Just you, your music, and fans who believe in you.

Launch Your Token

References

  1. Billboard, 2024. Record Label Market Share Reports.
  2. Spotify Pro-Rata Pooled Royalties System Documentation.
  3. Independent Artist Economics 2024-2025: Comprehensive Market Analysis.
  4. Superfan Economy Research; Bridge Audio.
  5. Underground Music Scene Analysis.
  6. Meteora DBC Documentation.
  7. Token-Gating Real-World Implementations; Artist Case Studies.
  8. Ticket Scalping Market Analysis; Pulitzer Center.
  9. Irys Network Permanent Storage Protocol.
  10. Nielsen Superfan Report; FAVE Research.
  11. ATVenue Merchandise Spending Report 2025.