We all know sampling and streaming rights have been a big issue for artists payouts in the last decade. Thanks to some legislation, modern laws seem to be slowly updating. Keyword: slowly.
Music startup Splice seems to be taking artist payout matters into their own, very capable hands, by creating an online market place for artist samples. Splice lets musicians sell their sounds for royalty-free use. The only cost is a monthly $7.99, which gives unlimited access to 3 million synthesizers, drum hits, vocal flares and other sounds.
According to TechCrunch, Splice has paid out artists over 15 million dollars over the last few years, which comes from Splice’s subscription revenue, which “is pooled and then doled out to artists based on whose samples got the most downloads.” The company effectively formed when the founders “saw a chance to build a GitHub for music, with version control and admin permissions for making saving and collaborating on productions simple.”
The marketplace has grown to 2.5 million users since 2013, and was just awarded 57.5 million dollars in Series C funding. This makes Splice one of the largest and most profitable music tech startups in 2019.
This poses an interesting development as artists rights and payouts are starting to catch up with the technological an collaborative era.
