The Value Gap: How Artists Build Billion-Dollar Platforms For Free

What if I told you that artists are the unpaid marketing department for every major tech platform, generating billions in value while getting paid in pennies?

There's a term in the music industry that most people have never heard of, but it explains why artists stay broke while tech companies get rich.

It's called "the value gap."

And it's the biggest scam in the digital economy.

The value gap is the difference between the value artists create for platforms and the compensation they receive for that value.

Let me give you a real example from my own experience that will make your blood boil.

When I was working with The Hunna, we invested hundreds of thousands of dollars promoting their music on Spotify.

Not just buying social media ads.

We created comprehensive campaigns designed to turn casual listeners into devoted fans.

We targeted people who had never heard of the band.

We introduced them to the music.

We converted them into fans.

And we did it so effectively that thousands of people told us they signed up to Spotify specifically to listen to The Hunna's music.

Think about that for a moment.

We paid for marketing campaigns that generated new Spotify subscribers.

We created value for Spotify that went far beyond just streaming The Hunna's songs.

Each new subscriber represented years of future revenue for Spotify:

But here's the thing - despite creating all that value for Spotify, we received zero compensation beyond the streaming royalties for The Hunna's music.

We got paid roughly $0.005 per stream.

Spotify got subscribers worth hundreds of dollars each over their lifetime.

This isn't unique to Spotify.

YouTube doesn't provide any compensation for artists bringing audiences to the platform.

Neither does TikTok.

Or Instagram.

Or any other platform where artists create content that generates massive value.

Artists build the audiences that make these platforms worth billions.

Then the platforms monetize those audiences through subscriptions, advertising, data collection, and investor valuations.

The artists who created the value get paid only for direct consumption of their content.

Everything else - the real money - goes to the platform.

The math is staggering:

This is the value gap in action.

Artists do the work.

Platforms get the wealth.

The value gap exists because artists have no leverage in these relationships.

Platforms set the terms.

Artists have no choice but to accept them.

Want to reach your audience? Use our platform.

Want to build your fanbase? Play by our rules.

Want fair compensation for the value you create? Too bad.

This is why streaming will never make most artists rich.

Not because the per-stream rates are too low.

But because artists only get paid for a fraction of the value they create.

The real money is in the audiences artists build, not just the content they consume.

But platforms have structured deals to capture that audience value while paying artists only for content consumption.

It's brilliant business.

For the platforms.

For artists, it's economic exploitation disguised as opportunity.

On September 10th in Mexico City, I'm revealing exactly how we're closing the value gap forever.

How we're:

Here is the link to register:

Free live stream for everyone who registers and 101 chances for artists to attend in person.

The value gap closes here.

Kind Regards

-The Baker

Solving The World's Problems Through Art | #thetimetodoisnow