37d03d Music publishing platform

About

PEOPLE is an artist-owned music publishing platform, initiated by Aaron and Bryce Dessner (The National), Justin Vernon (Bon Iver), and Michelberger Music.

It is a digital platform that allows artists to share their in-progress music while retaining full control over its release and presentation. Encouraging collaboration, it provides a space for a community of artists to create and share work, emphasizing the creative process as much as the final outcome. The project aims to address the often-overlooked aspects of music creation, such as unreleased songs or outtakes, offering a platform for unconventional musical expression that may not fit traditional release structures.

Press coverage

• The Guardian
• Billboard
• Billboard

The Platform

The platform offers a range of features for managing and presenting the content. Artists can easily upload audio files, which are then automatically transcoded in the background into various formats required for streaming. Additionally, the system allows for the inclusion of text and images to provide context and background information for the recordings. Users can create collections, albums, and playlists. Detailed track-level credits, along with percentages of royalties, can be attributed, ensuring transparency and fair recognition. Whether representing single artists or groups of artists, the platform caters to diverse artistic collaborations. Among the content management features are ways to work on drafts first, before publishing. Next to the browsable and searchable content, the platform also features a web radio, which can be used to broadcast changing playlists (or live streams in the future).

Our role

RRR was brought on as the lead developer of the project under the direction of ACB's CTO and was responsible for the development of the platform, including the backend, frontend, and required web services.