Kasabian’s Ian Matthews talks new tech start-up aimed at supporting artists

Web3 business Chapel, co-founded by Kasabian drummer Ian Matthews and serial tech entrepreneur Irfon Watkins (DOVU, TAPMYDATA, Outlier Ventures, Coull), has acquired Bristol-based music and creator smartlinking startup Amplify.link.

Now named Amplify, the outfit will use web3 tech to help support artists by giving them the ability to create long lasting income from live gigs after the show is over, using DeFi (decentralised finance instruments powered by blockchain technology).

The company is combining the power of NFTs and DeFi 2.0 to create a permanent yield for an artist and venue after the gig has finished. Amplify will enable fans to directly invest in a gig and share the yield with the artist, promotor, and venue.

The music industry is currently valued at £33 billion globally, yet, on average, artists see just 12% of the profit, with the remaining 88% taken by streaming services, record labels and other entities.

“For lower-level artists it’s hand to mouth,” Matthews told Headliner. “You have to be an awful long way up the pyramid before you can start living the life of luxury as a working musician. Even bands you think might be wealthy because you’ve seen them on the charts or you’ve seen their tour dates and they are supporting this band and that band, they are still people who will be owing the world to a record company and won’t be seeing royalties any time soon. It takes a long time before you get any true financial stability.

“The pandemic was not just the last straw, it was the last baseball bat to the industry,” he continued. “But we thought we could harness this new power that comes with blockchain to change the prospects of being an artist, venue or promoter. We want to put financial relevance back into the music industry, that’s our mission statement and what the whole idea is about.”

Amplify.link offers smart linking and marketing tools to allow artists and creators to connect and monetise their fans more effectively, and with the introduction of Web3, they can not only earn from these relationships in new ways but own their data and build strong communities too.

Through this acquisition, Amplify’s powerful network of backers now includes Snoop Dogg and Deadmau5 (both investors in Europe’s largest Web3 venture fund Outlier Ventures), and some of Web3’s most prominent thought leaders such as Silly Tuna and Maxstealth.

Watkins commented: “Amplify is leading the way in helping emerging and established artists get fairly paid for their work. Amplify.link was an obvious fit for Chapel, our perspectives are aligned and we are both on the mission to democratise the music industry. I firmly believe that Web3 is the future for the music industry, DAOs will become a standard part of the industry & DeFi will become much more frequently used. As a result independent artists will be able to thrive, the struggles we saw in the pandemic from the cancellations of live music would not have as much of a catastrophic effect on their income, thanks to DeFi and advances in the Metaverse.”

Matthews added: “Web3 will have a huge role to play in the future with the music industry. It will open up a whole new realm of possibilities in the way artists are rewarded for performing both live shows and within virtual events. Having worked as a musician most of my life I am well aware of the constant financial pressure that comes with the job, so I'm excited to head-up a project that aims to make it far more financially viable to work and survive in the industry. The last couple of years in particular have been hard on the sector, affecting not only musicians, but also small venues and promoters alike. At Amplify we want to bring financial balance to the entire music industry at a time when it's needed more than ever, and be able to offer the opportunity for those who work within it, particularly the artists who breathe life into it, the ability to reclaim control over their income through expressing their art.”

“We are now part of a seriously talented and experienced wider family, whose expertise can be drawn upon to help us build the company we’ve always dreamed of,” said Sam Bates, CMO at Amplify (formerly CEO Amplify.link). “We wholeheartedly believe this is the right move for our team and community, who we are certain will benefit massively from this. Web3 tech will allow us to reward artists and creators for using our tools and participating in our community directly, whilst opening up even more ways for artists to grow their communities, reward fans and earn more doing what they love.”

To find out more go to amplify.link