Music Is Priceless, Not Worthless – Rethinking Streaming with Tim Quirk
In our latest Signal Chain Stories episode, we sat down with Tim Quirk, Senior Vice President of Product at Zedge, to discuss something that's been bothering independent artists for years: the broken streaming economy.
Tim brought decades of industry experience from Rhapsody to Google Play, and his perspective gave a lot of food for thought around the topic of valuing music. His core argument? Music isn't devalued by streaming – it's priceless. The problem is that platforms like Spotify don't let us access the full spectrum of what our music is worth to different listeners.
The 3% Rule Changes Everything
Here's what blew my mind: only 3% of your audience actually converts to paying customers, and that's completely normal. Mobile gaming figured this out years ago. Candy Crush Saga had over a billion users but made over a billion dollars from just 3% of them. The music industry has always worked this way – most people discover music for free on radio or streaming, while true fans pay thousands for concert tickets and merchandise.
Enter Tapedeck: A New Approach
Tim introduced us to Tapedeck, Zedge's new streaming alternative that guarantees a minimum one cent per stream. They're using mobile gaming monetization tactics – users earn free streaming credits by watching ads or redeeming offers, and that advertiser money goes directly to artists.
It's early days (the app launched just six weeks ago and is currently US-only on iOS), but the concept is very interesting: target music fans who actively want to support artists they love, rather than competing with Spotify for casual listeners.
Why This Matters for Niche Artists
For producers like Mordio and me working in niche genres like hypnotic techno, melodic house and ambient, this could be huge. We're never reaching mainstream audiences anyway. But our listeners are diggers – people who actively search for unique music and value supporting independent artists.
Bandcamp already proved there's a $20 million market for this approach. Tapedeck aims to become Bandcamp with monetized streaming.
The conversation left me hopeful. After years of watching Spotify invest in AI weapons systems while paying artists fractions of a cent, seeing someone approach streaming from a musician's perspective feels refreshing.
You can also find the podcast on Spotify (we know the irony lol) and all other streaming platforms:
