The music you make is not finished.

IThe ontology

Three assumptions we are breaking.

Every major music platform was built on the same foundational errors. Inherited from physical media constraints that no longer exist. Nobody changed them. They just stayed.

1. 1

   A track is finished when it is released.

   The three-minute song came from what fit on a 78 RPM record. Those constraints are gone. The assumption stayed. On LOOM22, a track can evolve after release. New stems, alternate versions, layers added months or years later. The work continues when you are ready.

2. 2

   Income requires constant new output.

   When income is tied to play counts and play counts are tied to new releases, you manufacture more, faster, and move on. You cannot deepen what you have made because the economics penalize it. On LOOM22, supporters allocate to you because of who you are. Not because you dropped something this week.

3. 3

   Listeners are passive.

   A listener who can mute your drums, solo your vocal, slow the track to half speed with a slider, hold permanent access to the bass stem, and save a version of the track with their own name attached is not passive. The experience feels like personalization. It is. But every element they touched was authored by you. The artist remains the origin of every possible version.

What this means creatively

Your song is not one thing.

Every stem you add does not just extend the track — it multiplies every version that already exists. Try it.

Every stem a listener mutes, solos, or slows is a version. Not a copy. Not a remix. A configuration of your authorship that did not exist until they built it. No AI. No alteration of what you made. They are navigating a space you designed.

The number above only counts the modules the artist has already uploaded. It grows every time the artist adds a new module to the track. Add FX — speed, EQ, reverb, mood — and the combinations stop being countable entirely. The artist keeps authoring. The space keeps expanding.

What this actually means

What this actually means

• The work on your hard drive does not have to stay there. It can go up as stems, earn while you finish it, and tell you what to finish based on how listeners engage.

• Your catalog does not decay. A track from two years ago can earn more this month if you add a module, an alternate vocal, a new arrangement.

• Your income does not require a new release every six weeks. It requires depth of relationship with a small number of people who chose you.

• Your fans do not disappear into analytics. The ones who allocate credits and hold access to your stems, you know exactly who they are.

The artist–listener relationship

The platform is early. That is the point.

Wave 0 is 22 artists. The listener base is still arriving, and paid subscriptions and checkout are built but not yet switched on: meaningful income needs both sides of the ecosystem to be present. You will not replace your income immediately. That is the honest answer.

What you can do now: shape the platform. The feedback from Wave 0 changes what gets built in Wave 1. The artist analytics dashboard, the section labeling tool, the module drop flow — Wave 0 has direct input on each of these. The artists who are here first have a direct line to the architecture.

You will find bugs. You will find things that don’t work yet. What you will also find is that every piece of feedback you give changes what gets built next. This is not a platform you use. It is one you help author. The rough edges are not a sign that it is not ready. They are the reason you are here first.

IIHow it works

Two revenue streams. Architecturally separate. They compound, not compete.

Subscriptions create ongoing relationships. Purchases create lasting access. They serve different purposes and they reinforce each other. What they do not do is pool.

1. 1

   Allocation tokens — the ongoing relationship

   Listeners subscribe for $8/month (6 tokens) or $22/month (22 tokens) and direct those tokens at specific artists by name. On the $8 plan, 4 tokens go to one Curator and 2 to one Circle — or any combination that adds to 6. This is not access to everything. It is depth with a few things chosen deliberately, because listeners choose exactly where the money goes.

   • Circle (2 tokens)

     Access to the tracks and layers you made for people who are actually in the room. Deeper listening, earned.

   • Curator (4 tokens)

     The right to publish their own named version of your track into discovery. Their version points back to you.

   • Your cut

     Proposed: 70% of the subscription revenue behind every token allocated to you, rising to 78% as LOOM22 grows. No new release required.

2. 2

   Loom Credits — permanent access rights

   Listeners buy credit packs and spend them to permanently access a track bundle. The bundle — the full set of foundational stems — costs 22 credits per stem. A 4-stem track is 88 credits. Modules are then purchased individually on top, also at 22 credits each. Not a subscription. What they buy does not expire, and it is not taken back if they cancel a subscription. The access stays with them on LOOM22, on the terms the agreements set out.

   • What they hold

     The track bundle: every foundational stem, together. Then individual modules on top — each one a separate purchase. Permanent access rights. Not streamed. Not rented.

   • Traceable lineage

     Everything they hold traces back to your upload, which was hashed and signed the moment it arrived. Their access does not erase your authorship.

   • Your cut

     Proposed: 70% of every purchase, rising to 78% as LOOM22 grows. Credit packs start at $5. On top of any subscription support.

3. 3

   What listeners can actually do

   This is not a listening experience. It is a participation experience. The architecture you built becomes interactive in ways that have never existed outside a studio. These are the capabilities the proposed subscriptions open. Free listeners would experience a deliberately reduced version that opens up at $8/month.

   • Speed and FX

     Variable playback speed. Slow the track down, push it faster — the stems stay intact. Listeners shape how it feels without changing what you made.

   • Mute, solo, reshape

     Any stem, independently. Your drums out. Just the vocal. Their version of the song, in real time. Every possible version was authored by you.

   • Curate and publish

     At the Curator tier, their version of your track enters LOOM22 discovery. Named. Attributed to them. Sourced to you. Their curation leads listeners back to your catalog.

IIIvs. streaming platforms

Not a better streaming deal. A different architecture.

Streaming was designed for listeners to consume. LOOM22 was designed for artists and listeners to be in relationship.

• Revenue model

  Spotify

  Royalties from a shared pool, through streamshare.

  LOOM22

  Proposed: you by name. Fans allocate directly to you.

• One supporter

  Spotify

  No fixed per-stream rate. At a commonly cited $0.004 estimate, $3.73 is about 933 streams. Nobody streams your music 31 times a day.

  LOOM22

  A listener on the $8 plan chooses to direct 4 of their 6 tokens at you. Under the proposed rates, that single deliberate act would mean $3.73 a month, whether or not you released anything.

• Evolution

  Spotify

  The file is permanent. It does not evolve.

  LOOM22

  The track can grow. New stems, new layers, new versions. Support can grow with it.

• Fan identity

  Spotify

  Anonymous. A number in a dashboard.

  LOOM22

  Named. Allocated. You know exactly who your most dedicated listeners are.

• Lasting access

  Spotify

  Streaming access only, free or paid.

  LOOM22

  Listeners hold permanent access rights to your work — the full bundle, modules on top. You authored all of it, and it stays yours.

• Exclusivity

  Spotify

  Sometimes required by contract.

  LOOM22

  Never required. Release everywhere.

LOOM22 does not ask for exclusivity. Release your music anywhere. LOOM22 is where it keeps evolving.

IVThe math

Exact arithmetic on the proposed rates. Rounded to the cent.

Every number below is computed from the proposed prices and the proposed opening rate, before payment-processing fees and taxes. They illustrate the model; they are not earnings. The streaming comparison shows what one dedicated supporter would be worth against the play-count model.

22 Curators / month

$82.13

recurring, no release required

22 Curators / year

$986

zero new releases needed

Curator on the $22 plan

$2.80

per month to you

Circle on the $8 plan

$1.87

per month to you

Loom Credits — permanent access rights on top of subscriptions.

Subscription support would arrive monthly. Purchases would stack on top of it — one-time, per purchase, kept by the listener. Two separate revenue streams that build over time.

22 fans buy bundle + pack

$23.72

one-time

+ 22 Curators, a year

$986

recurring on top

100 fans buy bundle + pack

$107.80

one-time

500 fans buy bundle + pack

$539.00

one-time

These are one-time purchases. They do not recur. But they do not expire either: every fan who purchased a stem keeps access to it, under the Terms. Every fan who stays subscribed keeps allocating. The two streams build over the life of your catalog.

One supporter, in their streams

One Curator supporter on the $8 plan, expressed in stream equivalents at commonly cited per-stream estimates. Streaming services do not pay a fixed rate per stream; these are averages others have reported, used here only for scale.

Nobody streams your music 31 times a day. But someone who chooses to support your work will direct their tokens at you once and keep them there.

The rate schedule

Proposed: the platform rate starts at 30% and is designed to step down to a 22% floor as LOOM22 grows. Once a step is reached, it never goes back up. So the artist’s share rises from 70% to 78%. Every artist at every tier benefits equally from each step. Paid commerce is not live yet.

22% is the proposed floor, and the name.

VCommon questions

Ask the hard ones.

If something is not answered here, ask it at the end of the application. Your question is attached to your submission, and the reply will answer it specifically.

• What do I actually have to upload?

  At minimum, two separate stems. The individual components of your track. Not a final mix with the vocal on top. The individual parts. You decide how many to include, how granular to go, and which are open to everyone, which require a Circle relationship (listeners who have allocated credits to you specifically), and which stay private. What you upload must be your own work, or work you have the rights to share. The architecture is entirely yours.

• Does the music have to be finished?

  No. That is the point. Upload what you have now. Add to it over time. A new layer six months from now, an alternate vocal a year later, a live recording two years in. All of that can be added without a re-release. Each addition can be supported. Each addition can be gated differently. The track deepens instead of aging.

• Can my music also be on Spotify, Bandcamp, everywhere else?

  Yes. LOOM22 is not an exclusive platform and does not ask to be. Release everywhere you want to. What lives on LOOM22 is a different experience of the same music: modular, evolving, deeper. The provenance chain on LOOM22 is yours regardless of where else the music lives.

• What about AI?

  No generation of AI music on the platform. LOOM22 does not ban the tools artists use. It protects authorship.

  The stance worth understanding: listeners on LOOM22 experience something that feels like personalization. They mute your drums, solo your vocal, slow the track to half speed, save their version. It feels like they made something. They did. But every element they touched was authored by you. The personalization is real. The generation is not. The artist remains the origin of every possible version.

  What LOOM22 does not permit is content where AI is the author. LOOM22 does not badge, detect or ban by production method. What it records is authorship: who made each stem, and when. If you want listeners to know how you work, say so in your own words.

• What happens if I want to leave?

  You can leave at any time. Your stems come down from the platform, your profile goes dark, your ongoing subscription income stops. Your masters are always yours and go with you. Listeners who bought lasting access to your stems keep that access on LOOM22 — bought once and kept, independent of your continued presence on the platform, on the terms Section 6b of the Terms of Service sets out. The relationship with LOOM22 ends. Your work, and their access to it, does not.

• What happens if LOOM22 shuts down?

  Your work was always yours. LOOM22 does not own your masters — it never did. What LOOM22 holds is a hosted copy of what you uploaded, its provenance records and listener purchase history. Your masters stay with you, wherever else you keep them. Each provenance record is a dated hash of the file exactly as you uploaded it. Under the Terms of Service (Section 6b), permanent-purchase access ends if LOOM22 stops operating, so it is not promised beyond that. How provenance records could be exported in that case has not been decided.

• How does the money work?

  Two separate streams that never pool.

  Allocation tokens: listeners subscribe for $8/month (6 tokens) or $22/month (22 tokens) and direct those tokens at specific artists by name. A Curator on the $8 plan has 6 tokens to direct across artists. If 4 of those go to you, that single relationship would generate $3.73 a month for you under the proposed rates, before payment-processing fees and taxes. The number of tokens a listener allocates to you is their choice — but it is always named, always deliberate.

  Loom Credits: listeners buy credit packs and spend them to permanently access the track bundle — all foundational stems together, priced at 22 credits per stem. A 4-stem track costs 88 credits ($0.88 face value). You would receive $0.154 per stem at the proposed opening rate. Modules are sold separately on top at 22 credits each. Small per transaction. It adds up at scale: 100 fans buying the same 4-stem bundle would be $61.60 in one-time sales at that rate, on top of any subscription support they also direct to you. Paid commerce is not live yet.

• Is this real money right now?

  Not yet. LOOM22 is an invite-only pre-release: paid subscriptions and checkout are built, and they are not switched on. Wave 0 is 22 artists and the listener base is still arriving; the money starts when both sides are here. You are here for the architecture and the early stake, not an immediate income replacement. The artists who join now shape the platform before it has proof. That is the offer.

• Do I need an existing audience to join?

  No. The platform does not require it and Wave 0 is not a follower count competition. What matters is the work and whether you feel the problem this platform is solving.

  That said: the ecosystem runs on both artists and listeners. Artists who bring even a small number of dedicated listeners accelerate the platform for everyone, including themselves. If you have people who already follow your work closely, LOOM22 gives them somewhere to go deeper. If you do not, the platform still works — it just takes longer to build.

• What does it mean to be a Wave 0 artist?

  It means you are here before the proof exists. Your feedback shapes what gets built next. The channel is direct. Wave 0 is the moment when that still changes the architecture. You are not a beta tester. You are a co-architect of what this becomes.