Basically, yes, we see some version of v4v as the future. There is lots of evidence showing that a very small percentage of devoted fans tend to contribute to the majority of an artist's revenue. Most artists, especially those not in the top 1%, actually end up missing out on a lot of potential earnings because streaming platforms don't give fans the optionality to send more than the standard rate to an artist for streaming a song.

We also see a lot of opportunity in the v4v model enabling more direct connection between artists and their biggest fans via distributed online communities and platforms that incentivize fan support. As online media continues to fragment I believe we will see more niche-specific platforms grow in popularity, and people will need to have ways to financially support that content moving forward. We've seen this kind of innovation happen in podcasting over the last decade and I think the same can happen for music. We just need to get out of the mindset that paywalls protect artists' best interests.

Much of this has been influenced by people like Gigi and Sam, so hats off to them for cracking open my mind.