Vocana, a streaming platform focused exclusively on independent artists, has opened its subscription tier to the public following a beta period, the company announced. The service uses a user-centric payout model, directing each subscriber’s fees toward the specific artists they stream rather than pooling revenue and distributing it by overall market share.
The platform has also introduced a Royalty Calculator that lets artists compare estimated earnings on Vocana against potential payouts from DSPs such as Spotify and YouTube, based on inputs like monthly streams and listeners. Additional features include a discovery tool called Sonic Profiler, which recommends independent artists based on listeners’ favorite mainstream acts, genre hubs for curated discovery, and a Verified Human badge intended to distinguish human-made music.
According to the announcement, Vocana’s community has grown to more than 6.5 million artists during its beta period, with distribution and label partners including DistroKid, CD Baby, FUGA, UnitedMasters, Downtown, Gamma and MNRK. New users can access a 30-day free trial without providing a credit card. “We’ve worked hard to build a very different model that ties real listeners to fair payouts for artists,” said Neil Sheehan, Vocana’s president, in the announcement.
Based on a press release provided to Music Industry Weekly by Meg Banich, rockpaperscissors.biz.