"Big companies going forward will just be managers of catalog. I don’t see the need for a record company [beyond that] to exist... Their ownership in artists’ intellectual property will diminish" - UnitedMasters founder Steve Stoute tells MBW. Last month, his independent artist distribution platform has secured a $50 million investment by Apple, Alphabet, and Andreessen Horowitz supporting his mission to become "a full-service music company in your pocket”.

TikTok is partnering with UnitedMasters, a music distribution company, to allow artists on the video-sharing platform to distribute their songs directly from the app to streaming services like Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube, as well as brands like ESPN and the N.B.A. Instead of selling their rights to a label, artists who sign with UnitedMasters keep 90 percent of their royalties, as well as ownership of the master recordings, TechCrunch reports. The deal is aimed at “tomorrow’s stars who will be famous, fiercely independent and wealthy,” said UM's founder Steve Stoute.

UnitedMasters is bringing a shift in music ownership - they are offering artists to either let the digital distribution and tools company take a 10 percent cut of their royalties, or pay a $5 monthly fee and keep all the royalties to themself. Artists who pay the monthly fee will have a chance to have their music be considered by ESPN. Seems an obvious choice for any artist whos monthly revenue from streaming music services is $50 or more. The company says it has distributed and promoted music for more than 500,000 artists across all the major streaming services and social-media sites.