Some VCs lose money in music because they bet on hits (labels) or distribution (DSPs). Hits are luck. Distribution is a monopoly. I’m betting on infrastructure. During the gold rush, don’t dig for gold and don’t sell shovels. Build the railroad.
We’re Herding Animals Craving Connection
Humans are wired for herds — shared rituals, live energy, belonging. Post-COVID, that instinct has been roaring back, especially among younger people who lost formative social years to isolation: Gen Z and Millennials are driving the live boom precisely because gigs have become “social currency” and identity-forming experiences after lockdowns. Going to a music festival like Reading in the UK is a rite of passage for teens.
Surveys show pent-up demand turning into big spending; small-venue indie shows are surging as fans reject purely digital substitutes. KKR has noticed and has been buying up European music festivals.
Tech amplified the isolation (endless scrolling, passive listening), so the counter-reaction is powerful: young people are actively choosing real-world events. Live is the ultimate antidote.
Artists especially on the long tail are increasingly recognising that streaming is a loss-leader for them, useful only inasmuch as it allows Fans to find them, love them and buy their merch.
Digital Tools That Drive Real-World Engagement
That’s why I’m focused on tech that turns passive fans into ticket-buyers, merch-owners, and community members (smart fan memberships, social-to-live funnels, context/story layers around releases – there is a ton of interesting stuff going on in this space).
For the indie artists I’m really trying to help, tools that close the “stuck on social” gap let independent artists capture more of that without major-label machinery: Expanded rights (including live) already rose to 11% of label revenue by 2024.
I’m backing early-stage teams building these bridges. Products that solve real pain points for artists who want to make a living from their craft. If you know founders that are trying to solve these problems, I’d love to speak to them!
I’m not building another platform that extracts from artists once it has scale. I want the platforms I back to be part-owned by the creators who build them. The flywheel and the ownership model are the same thing.
What do those tools look like? How about a tool that auto-DMs streaming listeners when a band books a venue in their zip code? How about a tool that can tell venues what genres of artists they should be booking based on local fan tastes?
Real Impact
I don’t fund vanity metrics or hype. I fund plumbing. If you’re building the unsexy infrastructure that lets an independent artist bypass the gatekeepers and monetize their top 1,000 fans directly, I want to talk to you. I want to build the new middle class of music, and I want us to make a ton of money doing it. And I think we can.
We only invest in business models where the platform only makes money when the artist makes money.
I’m not anti-venue, I’m anti-cartel. The Live Nation monopoly owns the top, leaving a massive vacuum for everyone else. I back tools that help independent venues fill seats, and infrastructure that lets artists bypass the corporate gatekeepers to monetize their core fans directly.
One of my portfolio companies (UniteVerse) is already building the venue intelligence layer that can feed directly into another portfolio company (Fairground’s) fan ecosystem. The flywheel is real, not hypothetical: Fairground’s “Scenes” feature identifies the intersection of genre & locale → Venues get actionable feedback on gigs they should book → Fans post comments on a venue (food, safety, vibe, music quality) → Venue gets consolidated, actionable feedback on what’s working.
So what am I actually looking for?
Sources: MiDiA Research – Independent Label & Distributor Survey; Future of Labels; Future of Music Streaming; Music Metric 2025-H1; Global Music Forecasts 2025-2032