A Rising Tide: Growing Music, Growing Value
- Dmitri Vietze
- 4 days ago
- 5 min read
This year Music Tectonics is making a deliberate move.
We’ve evolved from being known as a music tech and startup conference to being the conference where the whole music industry comes to grow its market. The theme is: A Rising Tide: Growing Music, Growing Value.
Music technology has often been framed as disruptive, but the most innovative changes in music grow the market for everyone. Innovation should grow creative capacity, grow how many people participate in music, and grow the revenue music brings for its songwriters, recording artists, and performers, as well as the partners that invest in music and help bring in more revenue for music. When you grow the opportunities for music lovers and fans to engage with music, you have the ability to grow the bottom line.
Anyone in the business of music eventually stumbles onto the fact that the size of the music industry does not reflect its cultural impact. Artists that strike a chord with fans can tell that something is not adding up. Labels and publishers are constantly battling outside influences benefitting from the value of music without paying market rates compared to other media. Startups and investors are always sparring about the size of the Total Addressable Market, the TAM, while the true battle is getting people to pay for anything music related.
Not so long ago, music catalogs were usually passive revenue generators. But through his work at Hipgnosis, Merck Mercuriadis successfully reshaped the value of the music ecosystem by investing in the economic and cultural might of songs. That investment paid off, most recently with Sony’s recent purchase of the catalog Hipgnosis assembled. As Tim Ingham wrote in MBW, “Mercuriadis was right.” Catalogs are now investable, generational powerhouses bringing money into the industry.
I can’t wait to sit down with Merck at his Music Tectonics keynote to find out where he sees the Rising Tide surging next.
Music Tectonics, whether it’s the conference, the podcast, or a state of mind, is a gathering place for music creators, labels and publishers, managers and agents, catalog holding companies, investors in IP and startups, and tech companies looking to serve the music industry on the B2B front or on the fan-facing side. We’ve always attracted the entire music eco-system because none of this works in isolation.
We stand at the intersection of music makers and music fans, with the industry players who connect them.
We need to focus simultaneously on growing the music and growing the value. We look for technologies and companies that open doors to creativity at our Creator Fair, which takes place at the Carousel on the first day of the 2026 conference, and we provide a platform for theories, philosophies, and updates on how music companies and artists can increase the value of music. We provide a beachside exchange where artists, labels, publishers, and IP holders can learn about tools that help them multiply revenue for their music.
Eight Revenue Multipliers
Technology has been used to disrupt the music industry, but the best innovations help the creators and administrators of musical IP increase revenue, not arbitrage its way out of using music to attract users. This year we have identified eight categories of technology and tools that are multipliers of music revenue.
1. Catalog Value.
Increasing the value of songs and recordings starts with understanding how much they are worth and whether they are currently undervalued. Technology companies in this category might include:
Streaming audit platforms
Catalog valuation advisors and tools
Royalty revenue forecasting tools
Metadata optimization
Royalty advance & catalog funding platforms
Music IP investment funds (some of which build their own tech for catalog valuation)
2. Revenue Recovery.
With all the fragmentation between artists, labels, DSPs, licensors, pirates, and fans, the music revenue framework has a lot of leaks. Here are the types of tools that help us plug them:
Royalty gap finders
Rights matching & recognition engines
Collection society technology
Publishing administration platforms
Royalty accounting software
3. Distribution and Artist/Label Services
As we look at growing the value of music, we have to include these platforms that have opened the doors to more music being released and more listening and more music use. These tech companies include:
Enterprise label & distributor delivery platforms
Independent artist distributors
Independent label back-office software
Artist & label service platforms with a tech layer
4. Licensing
B2B licensing of music is the largest contributor of revenue in the music pipeline. Sync has remained a small share of total revenue, yet music is put everywhere. From new DSPs to new music uses like fitness, wellness, and social media, this continues to be a promising growth area. Here are the types of tech-optimized companies trying to generate more revenue from licensing:
Curated premium sync libraries
Subscription-based content creator licensing platforms
Social platform & UGC licensing technology
New and specialized DSPs
Licensing platforms for gaming, functional activities, and industry-specific use cases
5. AI Licensing
Given the unique characteristics of generative AI, I’ve pulled this as its own category of licensing, especially since the market rates and use cases are not clear yet. If the music industry gets this right, there is the potential for a huge amount of new revenue for the use of music to train generative AI models:
Licensed AI music training platforms
Generative music attribution infrastructure
Licensed generative music creation tools
Voice and likeness licensing platforms
6. Fan Growth
There’s been tremendous creativity in the tools and platforms to help market songs, tickets, experiences, VIP clubs, and merch:
Fan data & CRM platforms
Release drop & fan list marketing tools
Cross-platform artist analytics
Social music marketing automation tools
7. Fan Revenue
Direct-to-fan e-commerce optimizations continue to innovate and attract new fan spending. These include:
Artist-owned storefront platforms
Label-backed fan community apps
Artist membership, micro-patronage, & subscription tools
8. New Music Products
When it comes to finding new products for fans to buy, there is a lot of innovation in music tech, from physical products to interactive formats and creator tools:
Music content, sample & beat marketplaces
Music talent & services marketplaces
AI audio creation & stem tools
Artist legacy & immersive experience companies
Music game & interactive entertainment platforms
New form factor recording access
Where the Tide is Rising
Join the Rising Tide at the Music Tectonics Conference, October 27-29, 2026 in Santa Monica California! Get your ticket by August 11 to lock in an Early Bird Rate.
Music tech companies come to meet the investors, labels, publishers, distributors, managers, and artists they need to succeed. Industry pros and execs come to build their tech stack. Investors meet their future portfolio companies before anyone else. Everybody joins to work together to grow the music, and grow the value. A rising tide lifts all boats. Especially if we all row in the same direction.
Listen to the Music Tectonics Podcast series on the Rising Tide to get a taste of the conversations to come at the conference!
About Dmitri Vietze
Dmitri Vietze launched PR and Marketing Agency Rock Paper Scissors in 1999. His vision was to combine cutting edge technology and deep organic storytelling to help clients crystallize their missions in compelling ways and amplify their stories in innovative ways. Dmitri added music tech startup founder to his accomplishments when he founded StoryAmp, a DIY PR platform. That experience informs his work as a trusted strategist for Rock Paper Scissors’ music innovation clients. He continues to lead Rock Paper Scissors as a full-service agency as the music industry and the media landscape evolves.
About Music Tectonics
The annual Music Tectonics Conference unites music tech innovators across industry boundaries to share insights and get business done. The 2026 conference returns to Santa Monica, CA, October 27-29 for three days devoted to the future of music. Track the seismic shifts that shake up music and technology the way the earth’s tectonic plates cause quakes and make mountains. Throughout the year, Music Tectonics builds community and stays on top of the shifts through their weekly podcast and monthly online events.
