Published
Thu, Jun 16, 2022, 19:00
- "A song's value should not be based on the number of plays it gets," says founder Tony Lashley.
A new streaming app pays artists the equivalent of 500,000 US Spotify streams upfront.
Available for free on the App Store, Marine Snow offers a 90-day rotation of exclusive tracks. This model allows the platform to pay contributing artists a fixed amount regardless of the number of streams.
"The median artist we are working with receives about 100,000 streams on their median song on Spotify over the lifetime of the song, meaning that for 90 days we are paying 2.5x the lifetime revenue of their median song," founder Tony Lashley told Resident Advisor.
"This multiple is even higher for artists in the Global South and the developing world, where per stream rates are normally lower," he continued. "A local artist in Indonesia for example is making 14x in 90 days what they would make over the lifetime of their median song on other platforms."
Currently, there's music from the likes of Oliver Coates, Amnesia Scanner, ABADIR, Palmistry and many more. Tracks departed from the platform include a collaborative piece from AceMo and DJ SWISHA, as well as a track from DJ Earl.
Described by Lashley as a place for "connoisseurs to find new friends through new music, and new music through new friends," the app offers a unique approach to music discovery. Rather than simply displaying the available songs, Marine Snow invites users to crack open easter-egg style capsules containing single tracks, or "quick-combine" gem shards to form new capsules.
The more time you spend reading song blurbs and listening to music, the more shards you accumulate. There's also a search function but as the app warns, you have to know what you're searching for. Under the Roundtable section, users can engage with one another, earning rewards along the way.
Speaking on the communal aspect of Marine Snow, Lashley said, "we go to concerts to feel a sense of kinship with others, to affirm our identities, and witness moments of greatness, yet today’s music streaming services capture none of that magic."
Down the line, the app intends to launch a "gift shop" and "auction house" for songs that hit the 90-day mark, giving artists the opportunity to sell their tracks as downloadable editions and one-of-one NFTs.
Prior to going public on the App Store on June 2nd, Marine Snow had been in beta testing since late September.
Download it here for free.