Budding musicians turn to seed investments

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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.

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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.

David Vendrell

Born and raised a stone’s-throw away from the Everglades, David left the Florida swamp for the California desert. Over-caffeinated, he stares at his computer too long either writing the TFP newsletter or screenplays. He is repped by Anonymous Content.

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