Sonica<\/a> has become the most recent startup to launch a service for independent music artists, described as \u201ca complete platform for organizing, sharing, and selling your music\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Artists control how to share and make money from their music, organise their catalogue, and can create a Linktree-style streamlined link connecting fans to all their information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Artists keep 100% of their sales, with Sonica making its money from subscriptions if they want more than 4GB of storage for their music. Prices start at $5 a month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n Launching a new music platform is no easy feat, considering the highly competitive landscape, all the necessary R&D and concentration of resources among big players.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Midia Research\u2019s latest music-subscriber market estimates<\/a>, Spotify ended 2024 with a 32% market share, followed by Chinese firm Tencent Music on 15%, Apple Music on 12% and Amazon Music and YouTube Music both on 10%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Perhaps what these emerging platforms can reasonably angle for, then, is a piece of what the larger platforms cannot or haven\u2019t yet volunteered to provide. One strategy has been a tipping service niche in complement to other platforms \u2014 like MyPie<\/a> and Tipify<\/a>, which break down donations to artists by tracking Spotify activity.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n Some other approaches have been leading towards the appeal of higher sound quality and per-stream rates, like Qobuz<\/a>, community elements and customised curation from partner labels, like Cantilever<\/a> and Nina<\/a>, or opposition to algorithms and AI, like Coda<\/a>, which allows users to filter out AI-made tracks and flag unlabelled content for review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the long term, Midia Research predicts that we may see the market splitting into two<\/a>: with large DSPs serving mainstream, lean-back consumption, and more niche platforms presenting opportunities for more active listening, community and addressing artist pain points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sonica is one of the growing number of startups in the second category hoping to find success.<\/p>\n\n