Gaurav Sharma

CEO / founder @hookmusicapp

[Gaurav Sharma @gsharmanyc]

nearly 5x more music is consumed through Tiktok than streaming.

84% of music in the billboard awards went viral on Tiktok first

yet the artists are still eating cup noodles with no way to monetize it.

fans aren’t just pressing play anymore. they’re remixing songs, changing the speed, creating memes, reacting, sharing and building entire communities around music.

more than half of the music on TikTok is modified in some way.

but the music industry is still trying to monetize all of this using infrastructure built for full-length listening.

on streaming, a play under 30 seconds isn’t monetized.
on social, 30 seconds can start a global trend but no payouts.

a fan can remix a song, drive millions of views and help push it onto the charts.

the artist benefits from the attention, the platform captures the engagement, and the fan who created the moment gets nothing.

there is no real framework for permission, control or payment.

streaming solved access to music. social changed how people experience it.

the next massive music company will build the economic infrastructure for what fans are already doing.

and I think this opportunity is much bigger than streaming.

[Gaurav Sharma @gsharmanyc]

the most creative people find their creativity by accident
when they break the “algorithm”

this is not "philosophy" this is a literal observation about how new things enter the world.

Look at a vinyl record

in the early 1970s, someone put their hand on a spinning record and dragged it backward.

the needle skipped and the sound stuttered into something the groove was never meant to produce.

they thought it was a banger at that time.

that’s when scratching was born.

then scratching led to sampling

then breakbeats

then an entire hip hop culture that now drives a $20 billion global industry.

hip hop literally came from breaking an existing expected behavior.

i think about this every night because we're living through the biggest algorithmic shift since the internet itself.

ai can now compose music, write lyrics, produce beats, clone voices. and the people are divided into two thoughts: people who think ai will replace artists, and people who think artists should ban ai music entirely.

i’m telling you right now, both are wrong.

the real question is: who controls the algorithm, and who breaks it?

i've watched the music industry go from cds to mp3s to streaming to whatever this next era is.

every transition looks the same: a new technology arrives, the industry panics, artists get squeezed, and whoever controls the infrastructure wins.

[Gaurav Sharma @gsharmanyc]

The Al conversation in music is genuinely cooked.

And this doesn’t mean I'm “Anti AI”.

I'm anti being anti-artist.

AI has reduced artists' creativity and trained people to suppress their expression through music.

half the industry wants every AI platform playing by the labels' rules before it touches their catalogs. the other half wants to replace musicians with it.

It pisses me off that the conversation is never “how do we make artists want to make more music and get PAID for it??”

My entire life has been to make artist’s lives better:

In the 2000’s I helped build one of the biggest music streaming services in India and grew it to 300 million users before we sold it, and now it's called Jio Saavn.

I care about artists getting paid…I’m a music producer myself

I’m a music composition major, I play 6 instruments and used to be a studio song writer, so when I say music is my life, i fkin mean it.

I've also been in rooms where royalty structures get decided.

After seeing what goes on in there, I made it my life goal to do the opposite.

streaming was the last era of music. social music is the next one. that's what I'm building.

the streamers aren't the enemy here, we're building the layer next to them, monetizing all the engagement they were never built for.

If you're building anything in music and you actually give a shit about the people who make it, comment below, I want to know what you’re making. let’s mind share.

[Gaurav Sharma @gsharmanyc]

Hook x Universal Music Group.

Music on social media is the largest under-monetized category of music consumption. We just created the framework to change that with the biggest music company in the world, and we tested it with the biggest artists in the world. A platform where fans express themselves with the music they love, and artists earn while having full control.

Grateful to Michael Nash, Mike Bebel, Sylvana Chan, Chris Horton, and the whole UMG team. Artist-first since day one, just like us.

More soon.

[hook @hookmusicapp]

We’re proud to announce Hook’s licensing partnership with Universal Music Group.

We’re building the future of social music where fans create with the songs they love, while artists earn, stay protected, and remain in control.

This is just the beginning.

[NFR Podcast @nfr_podcast]

THE ROOTS NEW ALBUM 🚨

ENDGAME 💿

DROPPING SOON.

[Gaurav Sharma @gsharmanyc]

@UMG @hookmusicapp Honored and excited for the future ❤️

[Universal Music Group @UMG]

UMG is excited to partner with @hookmusicapp to unlock new possibilities for licensed fan creativity across social media and help fans build community around the artists and music they love.

[billboard @billboard]

Universal Music Group Opens Its Catalog to Hook’s AI-Powered Remixing & Social Tools
https://t.co/8kU3r1zvfT

[Gaurav Sharma @gsharmanyc]

@mattepstein thank you dude 🙏

[Ritwik Pavan @ritwikpavan]

NEW: Former Apple engineers just unveiled a $1,399 turntable that hangs a spinning record on your wall.

TD-1 is a vertical record player in machined aluminum that mounts on the wall or a floor stand with mechanical knobs instead of an app or a touchscreen.

- Records hang vertically and lock in with a magnetic clamp.
- Clicks onto a wall plate with a built-in level, or sits on a floor stand.
- Sets the needle pressure automatically so it does not damage your vinyl.
- You pick the cartridge before it ships, and you can swap it later.
- Plays through a wired hi-fi or wireless speakers.

$1,399. First 500. Ships 2027.

[Gaurav Sharma @gsharmanyc]

I helped build one of the biggest music streaming services in India when I was 25.

it grew to 300 million users. You probably know it as Jio Saavn.

then I took some time and watched what happened to music. and music changed more in the last 10 years than in the 50 before it.

streaming saved distribution but turned music into a utility.

it lacks expression while artists get scammed. artists are now numbers on a playlist.

fans are data points. the whole thing got reduced to algorithms.

then Al came in and it got even worse. one side says AI will replace artists. the labels just want every platform playing by their rules first.

everyone's fighting over control. nobody's talking about expression.

Al should help the artist and allow people to express themselves however they want, not stunt it.

the way i see music: true creativity has always resulted from breaking the expected pattern.

when someone scratched a vinyl record for the first time, hip hop was accidentally born.

the next biggest change to music streaming is going to break the pattern

if you're looking for what's next in music, i've been cooking something. more soon.