Marketplace

Music streaming platform Tidal now allows independent artists to sell digital downloads directly to fans, bypassing the traditional distribution route at a flat 10% fee—and coming directly for Bandcamp’s lunch. Most digital service providers (DSP) pay pennies per stream, but taking a direct-to-fans (D2F) sales approach offers a much more appealing option, especially for smaller or independent artists.

Source: Tidal Offers Direct-to-Fan Downloads with a 90/10 Split—In Direct Competition to Bandcamp

Many have compared Suno, and the rise of generative AI music in general, to Napster’s launch at the turn of the century, which upended album sales and led to the darkest financial decade in recorded-music history. Suno could disrupt music consumption, like Napster and Spotify once did. But it’s also doing something different: disrupting the sacred act of creation itself.

Source: Is Suno the Music Industry’s Biggest Nightmare — or Greatest Hope?

Artists of any level are encouraged to “adapt, remix, or reimagine works published in 1930 or earlier.” Selected submissions will featured by WNYC and preserved in the Internet Archive’s digital library, where they’ll become part of a permanent, publicly accessible collection. Besides its legal concept, the public domain is a resource ripe for creative inspiration.

Source: WNYC and the Internet Archive Invite Musicians to ‘Reimagine the Public Domain’

Audible is rolling out a cheaper “Standard” subscription plan that costs $8.99 per month, the Amazon-owned company announced on Tuesday. The new plan is $6 cheaper than the platform’s existing “Premium” plan, which costs $14.95 per month. The Standard plan includes one audiobook per month from Audible’s catalog and unlimited listening from a curated library that includes a selection of Audible Originals.

Source: Audible launches a cheaper ‘Standard’ subscription plan, challenging Spotify

The Authors Guild announced it has expanded its “Human Authored” certification program beyond its own membership to any author whose books are published in the United States. The certification program, which launched in beta for Guild members in January 2025, allows authors and publishers to place a trademarked seal on books to signal that the text was written by a human rather than generated by artificial intelligence.

Source: Authors Guild Expands ‘Human Authored’ Certification Program

As part of the expansion Van der Velden has tapped Prime Video’s Mark Whelan as head of strategy and operations at her new AI talent studio Xicoia. Whelan will be tasked with helping Van der Velden create the “Tillyverse,” described in a press release as a “dynamic, constantly evolving digital universe where Tilly and a new generation of AI characters will live, collaborate and build careers.”

Source: Tilly Norwood Creator Plans ‘Rapid Expansion’ With the ‘Tillyverse,’