Common

Common

Common was a music platform concept built on a simple observation: Spotify has audio, YouTube has video, and neither pays artists properly. By combining subscription-based audio streaming with ad-supported music video, live streams, and internet radio under one roof, the model could generate substantially more revenue per listener than either format alone. Video enables advertising. Advertising enables higher royalties. The financial model projected per-stream rates above $0.04, against an industry average of $0.007.

The payment model was user-centric rather than pooled: each listener's subscription was divided directly among the artists they actually streamed, so independent artists weren't subsidising major-label volume. The longer-term vision extended beyond the platform into distribution, publishing, and an independent label, designed to give artists a meaningful alternative to the Big Three's hold on the industry.

I developed the business plan, financial model, and full UX design. Common didn't launch, but the thinking behind it, building creator-first infrastructure that challenges broken industry economics, is the same thinking that drives Patronage.