zic

The Status Quo

In the early 2000s, when music piracy was at its peak, music streaming emerged as a more convenient and legal way of listening to music. But it also reduced artists’ revenue compared with CD and download sales. Most streaming platforms use what is called a pro-rata model. Subscriptions and ad revenue are split amongst artists after the platform takes its share. This puts the overall range of per-stream payout at roughly $0.003 to $0.008, with Spotify, the largest streaming service, sitting at the bottom of that range. This is partly because Spotify has a free tier that brings in many users but also makes the average payout per-stream smaller because ads earn far less per user than a subscription. Spotify also recently stopped paying royalties on tracks with fewer than 1,000 streams a year. At the other end of the spectrum, platforms that pay more, like Apple Music and Tidal, have fewer users, and therefore less revenue, partly because they have no free tier.

As a result, artist payouts are low, unpredictable and treated as an afterthought. Many artists have demanded a better payout model, with established artists going as far as pulling out their entire catalog from platforms temporarily. Taylor Swift, Tom York and more recently Neil Young just to name a few. Despite their efforts, streaming payouts haven’t grown significantly. Meanwhile, a US bill that would guarantee artists at least 1 cent per stream has not passed yet.

Artificial intelligence has seen a drastic improvement in its generative capabilities in recent years. This also have caused music streaming platforms to be filled with ai songs furthermore diluting the royalty pool. This lifeless and generic music has been of great use for those who can exploit age-related hearing loss to make money. For musicians, though, this is just another reason to join Zic.

Zic is short for music spelled the way it sounds. The full word comes from the Ancient Greek mousikē technē, a phrase meaning "art of the Muses". As its etymology suggests, music has long been seen as a sacred art, and Zic was designed around this principle. Its mission is to serve human-made music by establishing a new standard of music streaming royalties while keeping the platform compelling to listeners.

zic

Zic is built on the principle that every play should pay a standard rate of 1 US cent. This is achieved by having users pay $0.015 per play (one and a half cents). One cent goes to the artist or rights holders, and half a cent goes to running Zic. The plays will be available as packs (e.g., $15 for 1,000 plays) or an ongoing renewal of their plays each time the counter falls to zero.

The first 20 seconds of every song are free, so that the user can discover new music at no cost. After that, every 3 minutes of listening counts as one play. Partial plays add up across songs, and your counter drops by one each time your listening adds up to a full play.

*Purchases are made outside the app to avoid app store fees.

The average U.S listener spends 32 hours per month on Spotify, according to itself, citing an eMarketer research. If all 32 hours are spent listening to music, that’s about 590 songs a month at 3.25 minutes per song, or roughly $8.85 on Zic. 4.14$ cheaper than Spotify’s individual plan ($12.99) while paying artists more than 3 times as much.

The Free Tier

A free tier plan is one of the best ways to attract users, giving them a first taste of the app. This is why Zic will offer a free tier that pays as much as the payed plan does. Ads pay for users’ plays at a CPM (cost per thousand impressions) of $30. This means advertisers pay $30 for every 1,000 listeners who hear an ad. That is 3 cents per listener, exactly the cost of two plays ($0.015 × 2). One ad will therefore play for every two songs on the free tier.

Buying Songs

A user can pay $1.50 (the price of 100 plays) to buy a song. The song is then added to the user’s library of purchased songs and can be played at no extra cost.

Giving Value Back to Music

Even though the monthly subscription model was a good way for platforms to forecast their future earnings, it devaluates the very art that makes them money. Charging every listener the same flat price implies an unspoken hierachy of value: not the music but the platform deliverying it, is what is being sold. Instead, Zic is built on the idea that top listeners are also top fans, and therefore the ones most willing to spend more. The per-play model puts a clear price on music itself, making it more valuable to listeners.

Anti-AI Music Policy

Existing technology for flagging AI songs is already used, Zic goes further and will delete them and ban users attempting to release them unless the uploader can prove their music is human-made. Since music production is no longer purely analog, AI-assisted mixing and production tools are allowed; only songs created with generative AI are banned. This strict policy sets Zic apart as it aims to serve human expression, not artificial copies of it.

Before photography, painting was primarily used for accurate portraits. Once photography arrived, it was the expression of the soul and not the accurate representation of reality that became most sought after. Similarly, music is becoming increasingly easy to record, arrange and mix, and AI music is already being taken seriously by background music listeners. The future Zic is built for is one where human expression, individuality, experience and connection through music are what people will value most. To serve it, Zic is putting the artists’ interests first and, in return, earning their exclusive support.

A Model for the Future

The first step to making Zic a reality is to tell artists and labels about the project, in the hope that they will sign a letter of interest we can show to donors and funders. Zic is a way for artists and right holders to take low royalty payouts into their own hands and actually make a change. But this change will probably only be possible if more artists are on Zic than on any other platform. That is why the platform will reserve 10% of its revenue for 10 000 artists who make their music exclusive to Zic. Contracts last one year and are renewable. Zic is still in its concept phase and still has challenges to solve, but as interest grows and the concept takes shape, we hope to build the future of music streaming.

Contact us: contact@zicapp.com