English singer, songwriter, and record producer James Blake has partnered and launched the innovative platform Vault FM, which aims to address the challenges artists face in the modern music industry. Vault FM provides artists with a space to release music from their vaults of unreleased tracks, offering fans exclusive content through a subscription-based model similar to Patreon.
In a video posted to X, Blake expressed concerns about the impact of streaming and TikTok on artists' ability to support themselves financially. He highlighted the meager earnings artists receive per stream, emphasizing the need for alternative revenue streams to sustain their careers. Blake stated, "Between 0.003 and 0.005 dollars per stream, depending on the platform. which is one million plays equals $3,000. If you're signed to a label, imagine that number's cut by at least 50 percent, and after management cut, which is between 15 to 20 percent, and taxes and recording overheads, it's just not sustainable for an artist to be able to focus just on their art."
Blake further explained the challenges artists face, revealing that "Only 19 percent of artists on Spotify have more than a thousand monthly listeners, and TikTok pays artists so little that Universal just took their whole catalog off of it." He emphasized the need for a solution to enable musicians to earn directly from their craft, stating, "I wanted to find a way for musicians to make money directly from the music they make. Not least to be able to reinvest in the very expensive process of renting studios, hiring musicians, etc."
Blake said he wanted to support fellow musicians and incentivize the creation of new music, and sought a solution to empower artists. He explained, "Music is not cheap to make, and I wanted to help incentivize musicians to spend more time making music." Recognizing the frustration felt by many artists whose music goes unreleased due to industry constraints, Blake said, "I've spoken to a lot of artists that feel frustrated that so much great music goes unreleased because it doesn't meet certain requirements or trends."
After his posts gained traction, Blake was contacted by the makers of Vault, a platform addressing the challenges he had highlighted. He stated, "After my tweets did the rounds, I was contacted by the makers of a platform called Vault, who are trying to tackle this exact problem, and it made sense. So we joined forces."
The move to a subscription-based model is something being seen more commonly throughout the music industry. In response to Blake's announcement, artist Bryson, the Demon Slayer posted: "Artist like Tyson james and myself have done this with our own website. We release unreleased music, people get our music early, and there's a 24 hour radio station playing Christian rap."
