English singer-songwriter, James Blake, has recently released three new tracks on the new streaming platform called Vault. This new platform allows fans to pay a monthly subscription to be able to listen to unreleased music from a musician. Blake stated on his X account, “We are launching @vaultdotfm to show music has inherent value beyond just exposure.” 

Vault was created to give artists a chance to make living wages from their music creations. Blake states, “The concept of subscribing to an artist directly, I think, can change the game and release artists from the relentless merry-go-round of the current state of things … This is hopefully a great step towards allowing artists to be as authentic as possible whilst still making a living.” Current main streaming services like Spotify pay their artists approximately $0.003 and $0.005 per stream. James Blake explains that one million plays equals $3,000. Depending on if the artist is signed to a record label, management costs, taxes, and recording costs, this amount of money is just not sustainable to make a living off of music. Vault is a step in the right direction regarding being paid, giving artists the credit and money they deserve.

As of today, March 21st, the musician’s three new songs are available to stream on Vault; “We Culture Ref1”, “The Man Who Talks Too Much” and “Olivia Kept”. More information can be found at the Vault website. 

Ok, so for the first time I’m going to be releasing from my vault of unreleased music

We are launching @vaultdotfm to show music has inherent value beyond just exposure

Subscribe to unlock 👇 pic.twitter.com/pIic7Ef47G

— James Blake (@jamesblake) March 20, 2024

Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat