Why we are building Steezi

Afrobeats is one of the most exported sounds on earth right now. The people making it are still, for the most part, paid last and paid least.

The pattern is familiar. An artist puts a song out. It travels. Playlists pick it up, a clip goes around, the streams climb into the millions. Eighteen months later a payment arrives that does not resemble the attention the work received, routed through a distributor, a label share and a currency conversion that each took a cut on the way.

The problem is not streaming

Streaming is fine. The problem is distance. Between a listener deciding your song is worth something and you receiving anything for it sit five intermediaries, none of whom you chose and most of whom you cannot see.

Every one of them is defensible on its own. Together they mean the person who made the thing is the last to be paid and the first to absorb any shortfall.

What we are trying instead

One profile for everything you make. Music, video, podcasts, live. One audience that follows you rather than a playlist. One wallet that everything lands in.

When a fan tips you, that is a direct transaction between two people. When someone subscribes, that is a monthly relationship you own. When you sell a track, you set the price.

We take a share. We are not pretending otherwise, and there is a whole post on exactly how it is calculated. But the default is that the money goes to the person who made the thing, and everything else is an exception that has to justify itself.

What this is not

This is not a distribution service. We are not going to put your record on Spotify. Plenty of companies do that well and you should use one.

This is the place your audience comes to when they want more than a stream — the release before it goes wide, the live show, the thing you only sent to people who pay you monthly.

We are early. A lot of this is not built yet. But the direction is fixed, and it is this: shorten the distance between making something and being paid for it.