We started Catalog with a simple mission: help artists earn a living from their music. The economics and precarity of the major streaming platforms left us searching for better alternatives.

In 2021 we created something that had never existed before: a marketplace for 1-of-1 digital records, where recorded music could carry the same weight and worth as a painting. Days into launching, independent artists were already earning life-changing money selling their music, up to $100,000 for an individual song, without compromising their ownership.

The next two years saw rapid growth, then slowing traction. A music curation protocol scrapped prior to launch. A cascade of learnings from starting a company for the first time. As the amount of music on Catalog grew, the design space expanded, and we envisioned a new crop of products built on this onchain music library.

This culminated in Catalog Radio, a 24/7 live broadcast with 36 curated, continuously updated shows. Thousands of live listeners supporting artists directly with realtime payments via a new value model called cosigns.

It was a resonant product, and our first step towards a vast network of stations that rewarded both curators and artists, built around enjoying and supporting music together. But its dependence on expensive, heavy infrastructure from our original 1-of-1 contracts became a major obstacle. So six months later we reset again, and rebuilt from a blank slate.

Soon, we began welcoming artists and labels to what would become our last chapter: a digital download music platform with automatic splits, built-in curator rewards, robust label support, and seamless UX. The simplest way to share and sell music on the internet.

While we're proud of this new foundation, it ultimately didn't reflect the magic or innovation we originally set out to create, so we began exploring alternate paths.

We talked to potential partners, considered pivots, and sat with the question of whether there was a path that carried the same conviction that got us here in the first place. In the end, after five years of building, reimagining, and building some more, we decided that Catalog had reached its natural completion point.

Catalog facilitated over $3 million to independent artists and labels around the world, many of whom we're grateful to now consider friends. It's been our honor to champion new value models in an ever-consolidating music industry. We'll continue to support every effort that challenges this status quo by prioritizing the sacredness of music and those who make it.

Thank you to all of the artists, collectors, supporters, listeners, readers, current and former team members, and investors who trusted us and supported our journey over the years.

Artists paid rent, funded albums, and went on tour from Catalog sales alone. That made every day worthwhile.

Until soon,
Catalog