---
type: claim
domain: internet-finance
description: "Subscriber payments allocated only to artists each listener played versus global pool distribution"
confidence: experimental
source: "Open Music pitch deck, futard.io launch 2026-03-03"
created: 2026-03-11
secondary_domains: [entertainment, cultural-dynamics]
---

# Direct listener payment model produces higher artist payouts than pro-rata streaming pools under specific conditions

Open Music proposes a direct payment model where each subscriber's monthly payment flows only to artists that subscriber personally listened to, proportional to listening time. The pitch claims this produces 14x higher payouts for artists with 100 fans compared to Spotify's pro-rata global pool model ($128/month vs $9/month).

## Evidence

Open Music pitch deck claims:
- **Spotify model:** 100 fans generate ~$9/month for artist
- **Open Music model:** 100 fans generate ~$128/month for artist
- Platform cut: Spotify ~30%, Open Music 10%
- Payment method: Spotify bank transfer with high minimums, Open Music USD wallet + USDC/Solana

Mechanism: Pro-rata pool model distributes subscription revenue across all platform streams globally, meaning each artist's payout depends on their share of total platform listening. Direct model eliminates this competition—subscriber payment goes only to artists that subscriber listened to.

## Challenges

- **No independent verification** of the $9 vs $128 comparison or underlying assumptions
- **Pricing assumption unstated** — comparison assumes equivalent subscriber pricing between platforms but does not specify if Open Music subscription price matches Spotify's $11.99/month tier
- **Discovery asymmetry not addressed** — Spotify's global pool may drive more total listeners to artists through algorithmic promotion, offsetting lower per-listener payouts
- **Scale economics untested** — model only validated at MVP scale with ~50 artists; unclear if economics hold at Spotify's 8M+ artist scale
- **Market validation failed** — raise achieved only $27.5K of $250K target before refunding, suggesting market skepticism about viability or willingness to pay
- **Listener behavior assumption** — model assumes listeners will pay subscription for direct-payout platform; no evidence of demand

## Specificity

The claim is specific to the direct-allocation mechanism and measurable through payout comparison. Disagreement would center on whether the $128 figure accurately reflects Open Music's economics or whether discovery/scale effects would compress the advantage.

---

Relevant Notes:
- [[cryptos-primary-use-case-is-capital-formation-not-payments-or-store-of-value-because-permissionless-token-issuance-solves-the-fundraising-bottleneck-that-solo-founders-and-small-teams-face.md]]
- [[MetaDAO-is-the-futarchy-launchpad-on-Solana-where-projects-raise-capital-through-unruggable-ICOs-governed-by-conditional-markets-creating-the-first-platform-for-ownership-coins-at-scale.md]]

Topics:
- [[internet-finance/_map]]
- [[entertainment/_map]]
- [[cultural-dynamics/_map]]
