The Vault Verdict: Can James Blake’s New Platform Fix the Industry?
Written by Ana Balashova for Kill the DJ
The long-running discussion about the broken business model of the music industry has been sparked again by James Blake’s recent Twitter rant against the unjust pay artists receive from streaming services.
In his passionate post on March 3rd, 2024, Blake revealed the terrible reality musicians endure, alleging that labels, streaming services, and even TikTok are not paying musicians enough. (Fair point!)
Many people shared his frustration, which gathered over two million views just for one of the posts in a ranting series — a viral moment by Blake’s standards. But Blake moved beyond merely venting his complaints.
On March 20th, a few weeks after his first tweets, he revealed his partnership with Vault, a new site that promises to provide musicians greater control over their unreleased songs and a larger portion of the earnings.
Blake gave some depressing statistics in a video outlining his collaboration with Vault. He says that musicians only get paid between $0.003 and $0.005per stream, so a million plays come to about $3,000. When the label takes its cut, that sum is cut in half for those signed to a label; management fees, taxes, and recording expenses further reduce the artist’s portion.
Even if they are eye-opening, Blake’s figures might be a little high. According to my previous research and data obtained through the royalty exchange marketplace that I’ve shared in my article about Apple’s push for spatial, even for well-known artists like Lil Uzi Vert, compensation on Apple Music can be as low as $0.0000873 per stream and a pitiful $0.0000364 on Spotify. Call me paranoid, but this begs my personal concerns about Blake’s sincerity. If he really wanted to show how bad things were, why not provide a breakdown of his own royalties instead of using highly publicized generic numbers?
Even with these warning signs, a lot of fans and industry insiders are cautiously enthusiastic about Vault’s prospects. “James is right, artists should be paid more, but users are too used to paying for unlimited music for $10 USD a month,” says Asher Fishman, Web3 & Music Founder. “Re-educating users to get used to new habits or, in this case, having to show them or explain to them why this might be valuable is very very tough.
But I definitely think there is room for locking special access to certain music.”
Co-founder of Feed Media Group Lauren Pufpaf provides a more balanced analysis. “From my perspective, the idea isn’t actually that novel and just represents another potential avenue for artists to go directly to fans. I believe that new distribution opportunities are always a good thing, but I don’t foresee any big impact on the industry writ large,” she says.
Mainstream media has surprisingly been unenthusiastic about Vault. For instance, the Guardian called it “a fantasy that disadvantages fans and musicians.”
Fans’ opinions on social media were mixed. Some declare it to be revolutionary. Some tweets said, “This could be a gamechanger,” and “You’re changing the landscape for people like me.”
A few, though, were less excited. Some doubted the model altogether, claiming that artists need growth and fanbase, not earnings, at first.
Some were questioning the timing and circumstances of building the product. Blake posted his rant on March 3, as one perceptive observer pointed out, and less than two weeks later, he seemed to have teamed up with Vault and was prepared to launch. Like the author of this take, who found the quick turnaround questionable.
Is Vault real?
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