Matt Winn

Founder/CEO @IndieByIRAS

[Matt Winn @itsmsaw]

@nicktara_music @kitjenson That is distribution.

The second Spotify accepts uploads, ingests metadata, manages rights, processes royalties and handles takedowns directly from artists, they’ve become a distributor. SoundCloud and YouTube are open platforms. Spotify and Apple are retail stores.

[Matt Winn @itsmsaw]

My dreams keep me up at night.

[Matt Winn @itsmsaw]

@kitjenson @nicktara_music Spotify already decides what gets recommended, what gets playlisted, what gets surfaced and how much gets paid. Now yall want Spotify and Apple to control distribution too. 😂 Insanity.

[Matt Winn @itsmsaw]

@kitjenson @nicktara_music Artists shouldn’t want Spotify distributing their music. That’s like asking YouTube to be your manager.

The separation between distributor and retailer is one of the few checks and balances artists still have.

[Matt Winn @itsmsaw]

@spiketeejoint @lou_m_cypher Exactly. Most artists wish their first efforts could be as iconic and legendary. She’s 1 of 1.

[Matt Winn @itsmsaw]

@proplockss @bmm972 @chrisou_237 @BrianZisook Selling them doesn’t restart the clock. They go back first public domain release date.

[Matt Winn @itsmsaw]

There’s Shopify monthly subscription + payment processor fees. https://t.co/WCZ6GTJcG6 subscription + transaction/reporting fees. Aggregator distribution fees if delivered direct to https://t.co/WCZ6GTJcG6. Potential Shop Pay/installment fees. Shipping and fulfillment costs if physicals are involved.

[Matt Winn @itsmsaw]

@VinceValholla @BoomdrawOfFizix I’ve considered them but I always was concerned how their fees start to stack. It was almost as much as iTunes lol

[Matt Winn @itsmsaw]

@billboardcharts @Drake I thought the stimmy was gone 😅

[Matt Winn @itsmsaw]

The genius of Drake’s run is that Ice Man wasn’t the whole play. He surrounded it with multiple worlds and moods so no matter what you wanted to hear this summer, rap, R&B, dance, southern bounce, introspection, you still ended up inside the Drake ecosystem. Rap game back in a chokehold.

[Matt Winn @itsmsaw]

One thing I’m learning is there’s a big difference between people who want to build something and people who want to be around people building something.

[Matt Winn @itsmsaw]

It’s unfortunate I have to tweet like this, but I genuinely don’t have many people around me in real life thinking about music and the future of independent companies at this level.

A lot of this is me thinking out loud in real time while building.

And I know I got peers doing the same.

We’re all in our own silos building something. We probably need to come together more intentionally.

[Matt Winn @itsmsaw]

By 2030, there will be artists, executives, systems, releases, and entire careers moving through IRAS that have nothing to do with me personally.

That’s when I’ll know we really built it.

[Matt Winn @itsmsaw]

The process of externalizing myself to the point I built an institutional system that could outlive me by 30 years has been one of the hardest exercises I’ve ever done. But thank God we’re here now.

[Matt Winn @itsmsaw]

@CamoDaCool Because it gets them attention. Hopefully not killed like… 😅 jk

[Matt Winn @itsmsaw]

The craziest part is this infrastructure already changed IRAS fundamentally. For the first time I can feel the system caught up to the vision. And honestly, the system might actually be better than me now. 😅

[Matt Winn @itsmsaw]

Quietly spent the past month building the infrastructure behind IRAS, turning years of experience, data and decision making into real operational intelligence for the future of indie artists.

Now it’s time to execute.

[Matt Winn @itsmsaw]

What I’m most excited about is our artist partners are about to have a whole new experience with IRAS 🙏🏾 more clarity around their work, more visibility into the path and more confidence in how the music can move, grow and sustain long term.

[Matt Winn @itsmsaw]

@RawElementz @B_Untitled Lowkey but I gotta look at the era collectively because Habibti and MOH takin over rn 😅

[Matt Winn @itsmsaw]

@Kameron_Hay It’s a new revenue stream.