How to Solve Audius' Biggest Challenge

In 2006, as Amazon was preparing to launch the Kindle, the company sent its Director of Business Development, Dan Rose, to convince book publishers that they needed to convert their books into eBooks. At that time, the publishing process was analog, and it would have taken a lot of work for the publishers to convert their books into digital formats.

After many rejections from publishers, Dan became discouraged. But Jeff Bezos told him that it was essential to have a wide selection of eBooks available when the Kindle launched. Bezos believed that if users couldn't find the books they were looking for, they'd ditch the Kindle platform. Bezos' reasoning still holds true today: when I first tried Audius on August 17, 2021, I stopped using the app after I found that my favorite artists weren't on the platform.

Dan continued to meet with publishers. He found that they didn't want to convert the books into eBooks themselves, but they were happy to grant Amazon the rights to convert the books on their behalf. Similarly, I believe that artists will be willing to let us upload their music to Audius on their behalf, as long as they receive adequate compensation for streams.

The 2006 Kindle story is just like the 2023 Audius story. Dan Rose convinced publishers to put their eBooks on the Kindle store. I will convince music artists to put their songs on Audius. How? By leveraging my network and reaching out to artists online and at events.

In 2016, I founded Evnt Media, where I helped music artists and producers grow their fan base and increase sales through paid ads and sales funnels. During my time there, I developed genuine connections with hundreds of music artists, including platinum producer 'prodbyeros' and platinum artist Lil Baby.