The Verge

This press mention deserves a closer look.

This story in The Verge describes a startup named Voltra and their stream to own service. Flattering to see this innovative model gaining wider adoption, as we think it’s the best solution for artists to earn a sustainable income. We also wholeheartedly agree with the notion that owning music is critical, not just to the support of the creators, but also for those who truly love the art.

The Verge article mentions Voltra’s plan to give 100% of their earnings from streaming and downloads directly to the artists, preferring instead to charge labels and distributors and artists for premium features.

While it’s true that Resonate pays 70% of each stream to musicians we also distribute any profit gained after operating expenses are deducted from the remaining 30%. In addition any profit we make from other income channels is also distributed to shareholders, fans and artists. In other words we share our earnings with all members of the community, not simply a handful of investors and owners. Combined with our democratic governance model as a cooperative, we stand committed to providing a truly open and engaged service for all participants. (So much so that even our founders only hold a single voting + ownership share just like all members.)

In case anyone is curious about the timeline behind our project and our stream to own model, we include the following dates for posterity:

The Resonate domain was first registered on March 28, 2015.

Our #stream2own page was first published on May 4th, 2015.

Voltra.co was registered on Dec 3rd, 2015.