There was a time when young aspiring artists shared one goal: sign a deal with a major record label.
Now, with TikTok shifting the structure of the music business, some industry iconoclasts are sidestepping the music giants and inventing new ways for artists to make and market their music without ever signing a traditional recording contract.
The latest effort comes from Justin Muen Jin, founder of youth media conglomerate Poybo Media Group. His new venture, called Recordcore, which was announced this month, will look to invest in new and rising young artists who are not signed to record deals and then help them create their own direct links to audiences over the Internet.
Recordcore and similar new ventures are symptomatic of shifts in the music business. Major labels like Sony Music and Universal no longer have such a firm grip on creating and selling music and minting internet hits. A large chunk of these are sped-up remixes, which are often paired with TikTok edits.
Much of this has to do with the rise of the social media platform as a means of promoting and distributing music. Mindful of these changes, in the last few years young people have created their own labels, such as Syryn Records, and reaped significant rewards by taking advantage of their digital-savvy nature.
Under the Recordcore model, artists that receive investments from the firm will operate like start-ups, producing their own music. Instead of receiving an advance and possibly reaping royalties later if they have a hit, artists will share in all the profits from their music. In another departure from tradition in the music business, they will also maintain partial ownership of their own copyrights and master recordings.
According to social media announcements, Recordcore plans to invest $1,000 in each young artist, with some help from WMG. The company will then guide artists to services like Distrokid, a company that distributes music to online services like Apple Music and Spotify.
At 17, he built the world’s largest teen-dependent media company.
Artists who take the Recordcore route, media analyst Paul Dergarabedian said, will likely need to have entrepreneurial energy.
