3min chapter

Trapital cover image

Artist Independence (with Steve Stoute)

Trapital

CHAPTER

The Moat: A Business Model That Works for Artists

United Masters has signed Brent Faez, Distro Kid and Tumkor. Do you think anyone has a moat in the space? I don't know if we have a moat. We have a great business model that certain artists, labels can find use of. If people choose you and you build a strong business and you're growing, that's the quote unquote moat.

00:00
Speaker 2
That makes sense. And I think for United Masters as well, you've been able to have your moat, essentially, as you've described it, you have the years of experience, you have the ability to connect dots and ways that others don't. And that's led you to land some of the artists you have. You have a recent deal that's been announced with Brent Faez and a long term partnership there. Can you talk a bit about that deal and how things came together?
Speaker 1
Well, a moat is a little bit of a stretch. I don't know if we have a moat. We have a great business model that certain artists, labels can find use of. Do
Speaker 2
you think anyone has a moat in the space?
Speaker 1
No, no, the record companies, the traditional record companies had a moat when physical distribution was a barrier of entry, right? Not it's very hard to press up 500,000 CDEs or vinyls or whatever it is and distributed to 7,000 points of distribution. That's not easy to do for a small, a single individual or a very small business. So that was their moat. They also had a monopoly on radio and MTV. You know, MTV doesn't matter at all. And for music, per se, and radio matters much less than it used to for discovery, right? So they used to have a moat, but no longer do they have a moat. And I don't think anybody independent music has a moat. I think Distro Kid has a lane and Tumkor has a lane and United masses have a lane and, you know, others have certain strengths about them. But I think the only moat you have is the moat that is a true result of the success that you have. If people choose you and you build a strong business and you're growing, that's the quote unquote moat. But other than that, I don't think anyone has a clear defining advantage that no one else can replicate. Right. And just because we have the brand stuff, does it mean that that's the, you know, I want to believe that's very important to the artists, but somebody else may have another thing that is marketed well. And that's what they think their advantages. I don't have the ultimate advantage because, you know, brands and brand partnerships and sync may not necessarily be what you find most valuable. It could be a distribution company that creates and manufactures merch. And you're like, Oh shit, that's the one I want. Right. So I don't want to say that specifically we have
Speaker 2
that.

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