Wyclef Jean, Grammy-award winning musician and current chief music officer at OpenWav, is at the helm of a massively disruptive effort in the music space. OpenWav is a new kind of direct-to-fan music platform. That’s because it puts artists first, providing them the tools they need to be paid fairly for their work. For one, musicians can release new music on the platform exclusively before anywhere else. They can similarly create original merchandise through AI art generators and achieve global dropshipping with no initial investment.
As the music ecosystem changes, Jean has recently spoken out on the failures of the conventional music streaming platforms. He claims their models don’t sufficiently compensate artists for their creations. For an emerging artist, it definitely sets you behind the eight ball. You’d have to pay for 20 times that number of streams just to generate $10,000 in revenue. So then you have a permanent insurrection,” he says. There’s no question that many creatives share this desire. Now, they can barely scratch out a sustainable existence in today’s difficult climate.
The platform’s innovative non-profit model seeks to remedy these shortcomings by allowing musicians to engage directly with their fans on a granular level. With OpenWav, artists can make more money by reaching a smaller, but more focused group of fans. As entrepreneur and co-founder of OpenWav, Jaeson Ma, once explained, when you have true fans behind you, they are unstoppable. If you can get 1,000 fans to commit $10 a month, that’s a jaw-dropping $120,000 a year for an independent music artist. Think about that. This model moves the landscape from a mass streaming paradigm to building more meaningful connections with fans.
And this is where Jean really hammers home the centrality of AI in this new paradigm. What he’s excited about is the prospect of AI helping artists create more diverse content and products than ever before. He claims, “AI is going to be your best friend as a creative. This is exactly what we’re seeing with AI. On the business side, this process makes for a much more efficient creative process while allowing musicians to save time on reimagining how they make money.
OpenWav seeks to stand out from other creators’ fan platforms by providing artists with more favorable financial conditions. Ma says that if you sign up for OpenWav, once you sell your tickets you’ll get to keep 80% of the profit from sales. The platform takes 20% to cover their costs and help you sell more tickets to your performances. This revenue model could not be more different from traditional platforms that frequently take a huge percentage from artists’ revenues.
Jean cites Cardi B as a great example. In the piece, she illustrates how Cardi has managed to sell out CDs and vinyl albums despite being plagued by the industry today’s pitfalls. “Spotify’s not paying you Instagram’s not paying,” TikTok’s not paying you,” he continued. “But your real fans—they’ll pay you.” This deep relationship with fans makes it possible for artists to sell tickets, exclusive music, and special merchandise directly through OpenWav.
Ma’s background as a media industry entrepreneur and investor lends credibility to OpenWav’s mission. He was an early investor in successful startups like Musical.ly, which eventually morphed into TikTok. His life experience has prepared him to recognize and confront the oppressive system that exists in the music industry, and the need for change.
The enthusiasm both Jean and Ma express regarding AI technology suggests that it will play a crucial role in shaping the future of music. They envision a landscape where artists can leverage technological advancements to enhance their creative output while securing their financial futures.
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