Welcome to HeadTwerk!

11 min readMay 29, 2020

What is HeadTwerk?

HeadTwerk is a decentralized file and audience engagement platform for musicians operating off of an innovative business model using what is called a VCR (Variable Cost Response) which ensures that independent and signed artists are given the maximum amount of revenue from each sale of their products.

HeadTwerk is region-free and will accept cryptocurrency as a means of payment to ensure unfettered global access to this service. It also aims to become a place of permanent storage of any and all approved content with a no-deletion/modification guarantee.

Why is HeadTwerk needed?

Nowadays music sharing and streaming services such as Google Play and iTunes take 30% from every dollar that an artist earns from the sale of their songs and albums. Streaming is even worse*, with payouts ranging from $0.0006 cents (YouTube) to a high of $0.0167 cents per stream (Napster).

*Forbes (2017) “What Do The Major Streaming Services Pay Per Stream?

It is estimated that for an artist to earn a minimum wage ($1,472 USD) on Google Play for example — they would need 249,491 streams of their product each month.

$1,472 / 0.0059 = 249,491 streams.

This is not sustainable for independent musicians looking to earn a living from their art. It is not lucrative even for well-known and established musicians such as Beck as he mentions in a 2013 interview.

“Streaming music is inevitable, it’s something that is coming, like it or not. But I question how I can hang on or stay afloat with this model, because what Spotify pays me isn’t enough for me to pay the musicians I work with, or the people producing or mastering my music. The model doesn’t work, so we have to come up with ways in which people can help us to make music for free, or at least for much less. But the current way isn’t working, something’s gotta give.”

The paradigm has shifted away from physical media into the digital streaming space, severely undercutting the earnings potential of any artist. They are now told to “tour” and sell merchandise in order to put food on the table. Some artists have resorted to selling licensing rights of their songs to car companies and commercials to advertise with. For many independent musicians, they do not want to turn themselves into a business and to engage in constant promotion of themselves or dealing with executives. They simply want to make and provide great music for their appreciative fans.

Grizzly Bear is considered an indie darling with many of their songs reaching the top ten on the Billboard charts. They have toured extensively performing with names as big as Radiohead yet this is what lead singer Edward Droste has to say about Grizzly Bear’s level of financial success:

Droste doesn’t expect a middle-class living, but he wouldn’t mind one. “I’d like to someday own a house, and be able to have children, and be able to put them through school, in an urban environment that one enjoys living in,” says Droste. “A lot of people do it. And doing it through music is harder than doing it as a lawyer.” I ask him if Grizzly Bear, with all its success, offers the beginnings of that. “No,” he says, very quickly. “I’d have to keep doing this forever.

The Median U.S. Musician Is Still Making Under $25,000 a Year — Rolling Stone

HeadTwerk aims to make it easier and more viable for both independent and signed musicians to earn money and to engage with their fanbase. HeadTwerk offers a limited amount of “preview” streams and will not be considered a “streaming” service. It instead, will serve digital media that can be owned by the consumer. Its audience engagement platform will allow for artists to sell merchandise/promote tours and directly interact with their fans making it the go-to place for any and all artists listed on the service.

HeadTwerk using the innovative new VCR model will ensure that artists receive the maximum amount of revenue for their products and will not be taking 30% off the top of each sale as major platforms do.

How Does HeadTwerk work?

HeadTwerk will be using STORJ as the backbone of all that it offers. STORJ is a decentralized cloud storage network already established that pays users to host content on their computers. This ensures minimal service disruptions, lightning-fast access to all products and greatly reduced operating expenses as centralized servers on the scale of Google and Apple do not have to be purchased and maintained. It uses Etherium/STORJ cryptocurrency as its method of transaction.

To learn more about STORJ click here.

Variable Cost Response (VCR)

The Variable Cost Response (VCR) model ensures fairness and transparency for all content provided through the HeadTwerk service. It can be summarized simply as “one for all, all for one” (#WWG1WGA)in which the operating expenses of the services are spread out among each of entities hosting content on the platform.

The VCR model can be envisioned as the following example illustrates:

Imagine needing to buy a lawnmower so that you can cut your grass. Shopping around, you find an item that is priced at $499. Calculating for ten years of use including repairs and fuel costs, you have determined the total true cost of this mower is around $888.

Using the VCR method, we can bring those costs down to below $100 for the ten-year span of the product. How? By bringing other people in on the deal.

You have neighbors who also need a lawnmower and have made the same determination as you that it will cost them $888 for ten years. Now, with the VCR method, we can bring in 12 people in the neighborhood who will have access to the mower. This brings the price down from $888/10 years to $74 per individual every ten years. Over 1,000% more affordable, that’s quite a savings! Although this does not include an increased amount of fuel and repair costs; the above example helps illustrates the principles by which the VCR method functions.

Because VCR aims to run as lean as possible, this also means transparency of expenses is incredibly important. This is why earnings reports will be released publicly in as much detail as possible so as to ensure visibility of operating costs as well as allowing for an open-sourced “audit” to identify further cost savings down the road.

In order to successfully implement this model, proprietary software will be developed that will track every itemized expense down to the brand of pens and office equipment purchased by HeadTwerk and its management. This is the only way to ensure that creativity can be given more room to breathe in a market that makes it difficult for up and coming musicians to devote themselves full-time to their passions.

HeadTwerk Offers Permanent Archival Capacity

HeadTwerk believes that all hosted content once approved — shall not be removed or modified once on the service. This is to provide confidence for the artist as well as for the fans who desire original material and not “knock-offs” or “remasters” that often plague music-services.

HeadTwerk will provide the option of modification or upload of remixed/remastered material but will continue to provide access to the original uploaded content. This ensures both historical and preferential integrity. Any modifications shall be posted alongside the original material with none replacing the other and a history of changes/additions provided. Our partnership with STORJ ensures and provides full blockchain transparency and access.

How Will HeadTwerk Make Money?

Revenue will initially arrive from three streams:

Advertisements
Membership Plans
Initial Listing/Review Fee

We plan to develop HeadTwerk along the lines of social engagement and thus will serve advertisements for non-paying members that join the platform.

HeadTwerk will provide membership plans that can confer benefits non-users do not have access towards (ie. discounts, flairs, privileged access to artist engagement, etc.)

Each content provider is expected to pay a listing/review fee that is yet to be determined.

Future streams of revenue are also yet to be determined. But can include merchandising opportunities, ticket sales and artist promotion among many possibilities.

Social Engagement

HeadTwerk’s social engagement API will consist of Reddit code that was made open-sourced in 2008 and will need further modifications/enhancements to establish our platform with. Users will be able to up/down vote topics and post messages as well as directly engage with the artist (should the artist choose to participate). This area of discourse will be accessed directly from the landing page of the content provider and be unique onto them.

Further engagement can be had with a “recommendation” tab that will use an AI along the lines of Google Play/iTunes to recommend music based on a listener’s history. In addition to this, filters can be applied to the algorithm to deliver personalized recommendations by geography, genre and other user preferences.

Members of the community who have paid for a membership will be referred affectionately towards as “Twerkers” with certain privileges that non-members will not be given access towards. Benefits can include comment flairs, the ability to post new topics, use of profile/avatar pictures, ability to stream purchased material and rate songs/albums, access to metrics and other benefits yet to be determined.

Statistics and Performance Metrics

Because the VCR model values transparent and accurate reporting of costs — HeadTwerk shall also publicly disclose the statistics of each artist. # of times played per day/week/month/year/lifetime, # of followers, etc. These statistics will be directly accessed through the landing page of each artist and shall feature a stock market-style performance metric. Ie. charts that display peak interest in the artist over time, a particular song, etc.

Providing these numbers will benefit both the artist and the consumer as it shall convey with accuracy the popularity of one’s music and a willingness to promote for the artist on the consumer’s behalf (due to them wanting to increase the popularity rating).

Statistics will not be provided or made visible to non-paying members.

What Would The Cost Of Starting Up HeadTwerk Be?

Because this is an abstract exploration of the concept — start-up costs will include a staff of programmers (Apple/Android/Windows), a UI artist, marketing/promotion specialist, domain/trademark registrations and discussions with STORJ to determine how their platform can be used as well as what the expenses involved would be.

Servers also, will need to be purchased and IT/data security staff to maintain their operation.

An in-app music player must also be developed. Blackplayer is an ideal candidate recommended for inclusion once re-purposed.

A broad number to ensure one year’s worth of operation and start-up is likely between $500,000 to $900,000 to hire staff, purchase equipment, design and program the service and deploy an effective marketing campaign.

Because of the VCR model, initial costs will be higher than desired. Artists will be expected to help shoulder the burden of operating expenses and assist in promoting this service so that they can attract more content-providers to lessen their overhead with. In the early stages of this rollout, the VCR model is not a viable strategy to rely upon and thus, HeadTwerk will need to pay out of pocket for much of the initial expenses incurred.

Future assessment will reveal a more accurate picture once the HeadTwerk platform becomes established and stabilized.

A Vision Of The Future

HeadTwerk aims to start low and slow by catering to the indie music scene. Once a critical mass of adoption is reached, HeadTwerk will offer to host other forms of media such as books by independent authors and films by independent filmmakers.

The possibility of hosting signed artists and studio films exists in the long-term also.

In addition, HeadTwerk aims to provide ticket sales and tour dates through the platform once a sufficient amount of interest is generated and a viable level of users is established.

Apps and games designed by independent developers too, can be pursued as part of a longer-term vision. In essence, this would be a direct competitor to Apple and Google but offering more integration, social engagement and fairer distribution of profits.

Conclusion

HeadTwerk is an idea that has the potential to revitalize music-sharing and audience/artist engagement by offering the benefits of a decentralized/permanent archival cloud-storage service while allowing for global participation through the use of cryptocurrency and region-free content. The VCR model ensures the maximum amount of profit, which in theory could increase over time as more and more providers host their content just like the earlier mentioned example of a community-shared lawnmower would be.

Because there will be no streaming offered (other than a “preview” stream limited to a set amount) bandwidth can be kept to a minimum and costs greatly reduced.

My motivation in wanting to develop this type of service has much to do with how disgruntled I am about having music on iTunes that is separated from Google Play and services such as Spotify/Tidal/etc that do not work in synergy together and geographically restricts content based on consumer-unfriendly licensing deals. I as am sure many others, also do not appreciate seeing songs that are deleted or searching for a certain track only to hear a “dumbed down” version that does not resemble the original studio master.

Another motivating factor responsible for the creation of HeadTwerk is the lack of social participation and engagement with the artists themselves. As it stands, engagement is a confusing endeavor with multiple avenues provided. Can the artist be discussed with other fans through Twitter? Or are they more active on Facebook? Is there a category created for them on Reddit or does the artist only uses their official website to post updates on?

Where should a fan go if they would like to comment on a specific song or album? Where is the community located for the artist? Where can information for live events and merchandise be found? This confusion can be alleviated easily by the creation of a platform that brings all the benefits of multiple social platforms and consolidates it into a one stop shop for everything from engagement to news to merchandise, streaming (previewing) and more.

Having this service and its content hosted on a blockchain will ensure protection and preservation for as long as… forever, as all great works of art deserve to be. Region-free and available for all.

HeadTwerk aims to rip off the chains of Big Tech and music labels by providing a decentralized infrastructure that aims to revolutionize how we interact with our favorite artists and reward them in the fairest way possible.

If you are interested in becoming involved with HeadTwerk and have experience or expertise in any of the aspects listed in this pitch — please send us an email detailing your interest. We are on the lookout for amazing and talented individuals (like yourself!) who are excited to bring about a grand reimagining of the way we interact with creators and their content. Investors, artists, programmers, legal gurus and feedback of all kind are encouraged and needed.

Thank you for reading!

Contact David at info@headtwerk.ca