The Artist Economy

What happens when the music industry starts deciding what counts as human?

This week on The Artist Economy, Michael Walker, Chris Saunders, Sol Gold, and Jared Christianson explore a new phase of AI music: platforms aren't just detecting AI anymore—they're starting to label it, watermark it, restrict it, and decide how it gets distributed.

Spotify is introducing badges for AI personas. Suno is embedding invisible watermarks into generated music. Licensed AI fan remixes are coming to independent catalogs. And YouTube is raising the barrier for creators to monetize.

In this episode, we explore Spotify’s new AI Persona badge, Suno’s invisible AI watermarks, AI-powered fan remixes, platform ownership, YouTube’s monetization changes, Spotify’s 300 million Premium subscribers, Warner’s AI licensing revenue, and our first Moment Spotlight winner, Jared Rogerson.

The AI fight is moving from permission to money.

This week on The Artist Economy, Michael Walker, Chris Saunders, Sol Gold, and Jared Christianson break down what happens once AI companies, labels, artists, and musicians stop arguing about whether AI can use music—and start arguing about who gets paid.

We look at Universal testing paid-only release windows, musicians challenging labels over AI licensing revenue, Germany moving faster on Suno regulation, Universal’s massive quarterly revenue, and why so many independent songwriters are still leaving royalties unclaimed.

In this episode, we explore how major-label strategies, AI lawsuits, and evolving licensing rules are reshaping the music industry—and what these changes mean for independent artists. It also covers overlooked royalty opportunities, why artists should build their own lane, and the debut of The Final Five, featuring real submissions from the StreetTeam community.

When a song becomes part of culture, who actually owns it?

This week on The Artist Economy, Michael Walker, Chris Saunders, Sol Gold, and Jared Christianson explore how music, culture, AI, ownership, and technology are reshaping the economics of being an artist. We look at the resurgence of Oasis' "Wonderwall" and what it teaches us about creating cultural moments, before diving into the growing debate around AI music, training data, ownership, and artist compensation. For independent artists, the bigger takeaway is to build direct relationships with fans, understand where their value comes from, and create a career that isn't entirely dependent on someone else's platform.

In this episode, we explore how songs become cultural moments, using "Wonderwall" as a case study, before diving into the growing debate around AI, music ownership, training data, and artist compensation. We also unpack why artists should focus on owning their fan relationships, building digital sovereignty, and creating diversified revenue streams.

What happens when AI starts rewriting the rules of the music industry?

This week on The Artist Economy, Michael Walker, Chris Saunders, Sol Gold, and Devin Mooers break down the biggest stories shaping the future of independent artists. We dive into prediction markets manipulating Spotify charts, the multi-billion-dollar rise of AI music company Suno, the legal battle over AI training data, the collapse of the traditional touring ladder, and why governments are now treating frontier AI models like strategic technology.

In this episode, Michael, Chris, Sol, and Devin unpack the forces reshaping music, technology, and the economics of being an independent artist—and what these changes could mean for the future of creativity, ownership, and artist careers.