United masters is a music distribution platform for independent artists (indie). The app, backed backed by apple investment, gives the ability for the artists to excute some control over their masters, music, and merchandising. The benefits are, within seconds, music artists can get paid their royalties through PayPal.
How does it work?
United Masters provides the artist with a host of information to help increase sales. Artists pay UnitedMasters to distribute their music on platforms like Spotify, YouTube, and SoundCloud. They split the royalties and can keep 100% of their masters. Then, United Masters caculates the analytics. The record label app helps identifies potential listeners and fans. The biggest benefit, a CRM tool that helps them retarget their top fans with pinpointed ads for tickets and merch. The ability to pair artists with brands also is a big tool that is missing with traditional record companies.
Apple, 20th Century Fox, and more let their money do their talking.
Apple, 20th Century Fox, and more put their money on the line for what they think will be a sucessful, profitable Venture. Apple sees this as a fundemental company that will be the future of music distribution that meets the needs of the digital world we live in. Apple began funding $50 million to back the company. Former president of Interscope Records, Steve Stoute, secretly raised a $70 million. Apple and Steve Stoute are not the only ones interested. They are joined by Andreessen Horowitz, Silicon Valley investors Floodgate, and entertainment giant 20th Century Fox. Needless to say, there is alot of interest in where this app is going. It shouldn’t be a surprise as many artists are fed up with the old way of doing things. Traditional Record companies are obsolete in the digital age.
Biggest Challenge?
The app, United Master’s biggest challenge is how to convince the emerging artist that technology and streaming are not the enemy. The company hopes they can help change the mindset of emerging artists. If the artist can think about their music in terms of ad revenue or commercials and themselves as a brand, they could reach more fans and turn listers into consumers, directing their fans to make purchases.
It’s not a completely new idea. Youtube has already done this with content creators turning themselves and their channels as brands. Thus, helping them earn revenue by connecting them with ads to feature on their channel. The CMR tool will direct potential fans into purchasing products from the artists and help artists collaborate with brands on a grander scale.
It works similarly to in-app purchasing in games, enticing fans to invest in artists through purchasing. The record label app can also be useful to finding where the artist is more popular and help them target events and tours in that area. United Masters is revolutionary and will change how artists, fans, and brands intersect.
