Budding musicians turn to seed investments

The Future. Online marketplaces like Indify, Sound Royalties, and beatBread are empowering individuals to place their bets on artists before major labels scoop them up. With the revenue from label-less artists who release music directly growing by 17% last year to an amazing $1.7 billion, streaming has made it possible for musicians to pay the rent while working on their first major albums… but perhaps only by finding forward-thinking partners willing to bet on their future success.

VC Records
Indify — which discovered Billie Eilish, Post Malone, and Khalid before they became breakout hitmakers — wants to give artists and the people who discover them the ability to jumpstart their success on the ground floors of their careers.

• Artists who use Indify can receive upfront investments and creative control in exchange for a cut of the streaming rights on a single song or album — with artists keeping at least 50% of the revenue generated after investors are made whole.
• Most investments typically come from music managers, who will then help the artist with marketing and social media strategy.
• Indify only makes money when investors do — 15% of their post-recoupment earnings.

Indify says that most financing arrangements are for about seven years, with 95% of the deals still only in their second year. Yet, half of all contracts through Indify are already profitable — some have already tripled their investment. That includes manager Josh Feschbach, who’s turned a $30,000 investment in Mad Tsai into $110,000.

For his part, Mad Tsai has made over $245,000… not too shabby for a UCLA student who was discovered posting ukulele-driven songs on TikTok.