The landscape of music has gone through significant changes as technology continues to progress, and while many of them grant easier access to consumers, few of them benefit the artists behind our favourite songs. Many celebrities have been speaking out about this on social media, including James Blake. In early March he tweeted about wanting fair pay for himself and his contemporaries, and now, the "Funeral" artist is trying to make it happen by partnering with Vault. "Ok, so for the first time I'm going to be releasing from my vault of unreleased music," Blake wrote on Wednesday (March 20). "We are launching @vaultdotfm to show music has inherent value beyond just exposure."
Seeing as Blake has built an impressive audience for himself, word about this new streamer is spreading quickly, and people have a lot of questions. "Another subscription platform? We already have Patreon, YouTube subscriptions and at least other 10 platforms that do exactly this. I get that you’re trying to help but this doesn’t solve anything. The public who just wants to listen to music in an ‘easy’ way and who is used to Spotify won’t pay five dollars for each artist they want to listen to...This just seems like another club, a niche thing, and a niche isn’t going to save musicians," one person vented, as Uproxx reports.
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James Blake Pushes for Change in the Industry
Elsewhere, the 35-year-old answered inquiries about how Vault compares to OnlyFans. "It is close in the idea and I hear you on that, but there’ll be ways for artists to be discovered through the platform in future iterations. I intend to help it become a platform that spotlights less established artists," he shared. Elsewhere, Blake pointed out that the arrival of OF didn't kill other adult content sites off entirely. Currently, a subscription to his profile costs $5/month and gives fans access to three previously unreleased songs.
Social Media Has Questions About Vault
"I've tried a lot of stuff and Vault feels unique and has a unique mission re: unreleased music + the payment model is exciting for musicians while being close enough to a usable streaming app for regular people to get it," James Blake explained to those feeling reluctant to add another platform to their subscription roster. "If your criticism is that Vault included ideas related to a mailing list, Discord, streaming, and Patreon in one app, is that a bad thing?" he asked. Keep scrolling to read more of the conversation on Twitter/X, and let us know if you'll be signing up for Blake's latest creative venture in the comments.
[Via]
