Business Model
1) BETA : Fostering the Artist <> Fan connection Initially, as we ingest catalog, HIO will be free. Free to use, free to listen, free to upload music and free to sell albums, merch, and pre-release album unlocks. HIO charges 5% for all sale transactions.
Our focus is on building out use-cases for artists to directly create value for their fans. Unlocks : On HIO, an artist can charge users any price to unlock an album to listen before it gets released to the major DSP's. Tickets : Artists, labels, promoters can quickly mint any number of tickets to a show on HIO. Merch and Exclusives : An artist can quickly upload and include a buy button for merch or exclusive content unlocks. Our focus for the next 6 months is building out features that directly help Artists connect to their fans, while we gain insight and hone the experience. 2) FULL-RELEASE : SUBSCRIPTION : 100% Per-User Engagement Model $10 / month Once HIO has fully ingested the same 100M+ full-catalog commercially released offering, HIO will introduce our transformative per-user engagement model that addresses the challenges of fair compensation in the music industry. Premium Subscriptions : $10. 100% of Premium Subscription Revenue goes to Rights Owners. How it works : Currently, music labels receive, on average, approximately $2 out of the $10 monthly subscription fee on platforms like Spotify. With 220 million paid subscribers on Spotify, the average listener consumes approximately 25 hours of music of month. The average song length is 3minutes, 17 seconds. This works out to approximately 457 songs per month, resulting in an average payout of $0.005 per stream ($0.005 x 457 = $2.28). Where does the other $7.72 go? In contrast, HIO is implementing a per-user engagement model whereby users pay a $10 monthly fee, with 100% of the revenue distributed fairly among content creators and users based on a weighted system. A simplified example: If a subscribed user only uses HIO to engage with content from one verified creator on the platform, and no one else - 100% of their $10 will go directly to that verified creator. If this same subscribed user engages exactly evenly with 2 different creators, those two will each receive 50% of the $10 ($5.00 each). This approach ensures that artists and creators receive a more significant portion of the revenue generated by their work. While other platforms may pool all subscription funds together, and allocate the revenue across all creators on a platform based on their share of the overall engagement, HIO takes a more personalized and fair approach - rewarding creators who create engaging content, and who encourage subscribed users to interact with their content regularly. Users can also access the platform for free thanks to an ad-based freemium model. Several features such as wallet integration and monetization will not be available without a verified, subscribed account, incentivizing users to subscribe and actively engage with the platform. Revenue distribution is not only reserved for music artists who post their artistic creations - but everyday users can also be compensated for generating engagement on the platform. For example, a curator who creates a popular playlist with thousands of hours of playtime will finally be able to generate reliable revenue from their posted content. Moreover, subscribed creators will also benefit from other users sharing, liking and commenting on their content.