The journey to build the vt

After many years of blood, sweat and (lots of) tears, the initial version of the vt is finally ready for release.

It all started back in 2010. A group of creatives put together a web series in Brooklyn, NYC. It was fun, and challenging. While in post-production, the writer and producer of the show had a streaming vision of how global, mobile entertainment channels should work to satisfy audiences and build a meaningful creator economy. The team behind the web series thought this was a good idea, and the best way to build it would be to focus on ONE channel to start, an indie music channel.

An initial website of the service broke Google analytics. Our early betas in 2016-2018 paid artists better than the global streaming industry. By 2018, we had integrated advertising into the service and discovered we had created a cash machine for the digital album format. (Here's a post on Quora about that process: https://qr.ae/pKyUhF)

But there were lots of problems. Certain music industry organizations had defrauded us of significant money in violation of copyright law, and refused to pay the artists they claimed to collect money for. Equally concerning, musical artists were addicted to the ego-validation from the various streaming and social media services that were fundamentally designed to devalue them and their music. Everywhere we hear artists complain about how streaming service payments are terrible and social media is draining them.

We've solved these problems with an indie music service that works directly with artists who own and control 100% of their rights (on both sides), encouraging a culture of informed & empowered artists. And instead of a constant deluge of "me me me"-ism that the current social media, etc, paradigm is built on, we discovered how to highlight & elevate real indie music talent using our cover contest.

To succeed on the vt as an artist, you don't need huge marketing campaigns or constant self-promotion. You just need to have talent.

Even better, the cover contest gives artists a way to hone their skills over time. By submitting regular covers, artists improve their skills and improve their craft.

Which brings us to our latest release: a tech music discovery service that creates tremendous value for creative IP and gives artists around the world (and universe) a tool for growing meaningful careers.

Or, as we like to say, a creative renaissance that transforms music and humanity for generations to come.