Finally, a Way for Music to Make Money (For Everyone)

We're launching in November, and honestly, it's about time.

Here's something that's always bugged me about the music industry: the people making the music can't make any money from it. I know, I know, you've heard this complaint before. But stick with me because having produced music since the late 90s, and getting back into what seemed to me to be EXACTLY the same legacy industry practices as I experience over 20 years ago, we might actually have figured out a solution.

The Problem is Pretty Ridiculous When You Think About It

So, there are millions of talented musicians out there. Like, genuinely good artists who write songs that get stuck in your head and make you feel things. But 99.4% of them make less than $10,000 a year from their music. That's not "struggling artist" money, that's "need a day job to survive" money. Meanwhile, there are tons of people who'd love to invest in music. It's actually a pretty solid investment...people never stop listening to music, streaming is growing like crazy, and music rights tend to hold their value even when the stock market is having a meltdown. But here's the catch: you need about $200,000 minimum to get into music rights investing. Plus you need lawyers, connections, and months to navigate all the paperwork. So it's basically just for rich people who already know other rich people.

It's like having a bunch of hungry people on one side of a fence and a bunch of people with food on the other side, and the only gate requires a secret handshake and a platinum credit card.

What We're Actually Doing About It

That's where Coda comes in. We built what's basically the first normal-person-friendly way to buy and sell music rights. Here's the deal: artists can put their music rights up for sale in small chunks. Instead of needing one wealthy investor to buy everything, maybe 100 people each buy a little piece. The artist gets funding without giving up control to some label executive who "doesn't get their vision." The investors get access to an asset class that was previously off-limits.

Everyone wins, nobody gets screwed over, and we all get to support music we actually care about.

For Artists: Finally, some options

If you're an artist, you know the usual choices suck.

You can stay independent and struggle to fund your projects, or you can sign with a label and watch them own everything while you hope they don't screw up your career. With Coda, you keep ownership and control. You're not signing your life away, you're just selling shares in your future royalties. Think of it like crowdfunding, but instead of getting a t-shirt, backers get a piece of your music's income. Want to record an album but don't have studio money? Put up shares of your rights. Want to hire a proper producer? Same thing. Have an old catalog that's making money but you need cash now? You can sell pieces of it without losing everything.

For Investors: Finally, Some Access

If you're someone who's ever thought "I wish I could invest in that artist before they blow up," well, now you can.

Music rights are actually a pretty interesting investment. They don't really correlate with the stock market – when everything else is crashing, people still listen to music. Streaming revenue keeps growing, and good songs can make money for decades. Plus there's something cool about actually supporting artists you believe in, rather than just buying shares in some faceless corporation. You can start with whatever amount makes sense for you. No $200k minimums, no need to know someone who knows someone. Just browse, listen, and invest in music you think has potential.

We Actually Built This Thing Properly

Look, we're not just throwing this together and hoping for the best. Not another hype based music NFT project. We've spent serious time on the legal stuff, the compliance, the payment processing...all the complex, boring (but crucial) parts that make this actually work. We're registered with BMI as a music business. We've got partnerships with real law firms. We handle all the paperwork that usually makes music rights investing such a nightmare.

You can pay with a credit card or crypto, withdraw to your bank or a web 3 wallet, whatever works for you. And unlike traditional music investments where your money is locked up for years, we have built a secondary market. If you need to sell your shares, you can actually do it on a reatil market, no months of waiting on a buyer.

The Timing Actually Makes Sense

The music industry is changing fast. Independent artists are grabbing more market share every year, the big three labels went from controlling 80% of the market to 70% in just the past two years. Streaming revenue is exploding. People are finally starting to think of music as a legitimate asset class. We've already got over 1,000 people signed up and ready to invest, plus we've got artists lined up with catalogs ready to go. We're not launching into a vacuum here.

November Can't Come Soon Enough

We've been testing this with a small group, and honestly, the response has been pretty amazing. Artists are excited about having real options. Investors are excited about finally being able to participate in something they've been locked out of. This November, we're opening it up to everyone. We're not going to promise this will revolutionize everything overnight. But we do think we're fixing something that's been broken for way too long.

Artists should be able to make money from their music. Music fans should be able to support artists they believe in. And nobody should need a trust fund to participate in either side of that equation. If any of this sounds interesting to you, whether you're an artist looking for funding options or an investor who wants to try something different, check out the new platform at coda.to when we launch. It's going to be fun.

Coda launches November 2025. Sign up at coda.to to be notified when we go live. Questions? Hit us up at team@coda.to

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