Guild is a new digital service that helps music creators leverage AI tools in ways that serve their creative process on their terms – and with a stake in the platform itself. Guild’s AI “agent” helps musicians design, distribute and track performance of their content across popular platforms like Spotify, YouTube and TikTok. The platform’s services also help them identify new revenue streams and secure intellectual property rights on blockchain.
Guild’s next move is to set up a fungible token sharing model that rewards music creators using the platform with an ownership stake in it.
“Labels often own the rights, [and] tech founders and employees get stock,” said Guild founder Phillip Rather. “Guild is giving artists what no one else will: rights and ownership.”
A $2 million investment from Austin-based Capital Factory, blockchain-based payments company Polygon and several ex-Meta executives will help Guild get the token model up and running.
Creative ownership
Rather, a former Meta executive and himself a singer-songwriter, launched Guild after struggling to find an artist-friendly platform to produce and share his music during the pandemic.
“I uncovered all of the things that plagued [artists] in the music industry,” he told ImpactAlpha. “Very low streaming pay. Artists don’t own their audiences; they’re chasing TikTok virality.”
Now with the rapid acceleration of AI, he sees both opportunities and risks for creators: opportunities for democratizing music access and artists’ exposure, but risks to authenticity, artists’ rights and economic equity.
“AI isn’t going away, but it doesn’t have to be extractive,” Rather said.
Tokenomics
Guild is developing smart contracts with the platform’s 2,500 beta users. Creators can buy into the ownership of Guild or liquidate the tokens over time, though early token holders’ ability to trade and cash in will be restricted to avoid “dumping and rugpulls,” methods commonly used in cryptocurrency to manipulate the price of assets.
Guild plans to sell tokens to venture capital investors to raise an additional $10 million over the next year, but otherwise all tokens and their earnings will go to its creators.
“We’re going to build this thing transparently. It will play out based on who contributes to the platform,” said Rather.
