Genesis
When GOLDCAP asked an elite team of technologists to build a fully customisable streaming service that pays creatives up 90% we didn't think twice.
Once we were able to build a system with features that met the standards of our founding artists, we started seeing impressive results from other artists earning up to 100x more, 100x faster than social/streaming. Established artists like Ida Engberg saw an opportunity to improve upon discovery, remixes and copyright. Once our backlog of feature requests was over 250 we immediately realised the market opportunity was bigger than initially sized up.
Over the past two years we have been building trust from artists by listening to their needs and delivering the solutions they asked for. An underground movement has emerged and expanded into the greater music ecosystem of major artists, labels & distributors who have co-created to empower artists with tools to monetise their catalogs securely, resulting in more earnings. The collective vision of these artists is reflected in our Code of Conduct.
Code of Conduct
Bushido, the way of the warrior, is the moral code of the samurai concerning attitudes, integral behavior and lifestyle. With great respect and pride we draw inspiration from this way to empower creatives with tools to be warriors.
Our Code of Conduct is intended to reflect our evolving ethos and culture created by our founding team of artists who insisted on building a platform that pays creatives maximum value for their time & work.
We commit to holding ourselves accountable to:
1. Honouring Creativity
Creating art is a beautiful process but rarely rewarded with a profit as distributors of content are still taking the lion's share. Our mission is to build artist friendly tools that give creatives full control of their work and pay the maximum.
2. An Ecosystem of Integrity
Supporting an ecosystem of real fans - that means no bots or fake accounts. The result is creatives can focus on building deeper connections with genuine supporters producing more profit.
3. Respecting Art & Creatives
We take copyright law seriously. The work that goes into creating art can be priceless. Some creations take hours while others take decades. Creating art is a Herculean effort that involves teams, songwriters, producers and others who are often under-recognised. Secure links prevent work from being stolen to ensure all the money goes to the creators. Our rights approval system gives creatives the proper process to get clearance for monetising copyright work.
Whats happening
and how Bushido
fits in
For creatives looking for impact online, interactions and distribution is the name of the game. Any piece of media has a potential reach which is limited almost exclusively by its quality, as determined by the interactions it’s able to earn. Social & streaming mechanics will limit the potential reach of a low quality piece of media based on the inherent need to deliver a positive experience (user retention).
Paid ads / sponsorships and bots have caused tremendous amount of noise and polluted social networks, drowning out creators, ultimately creating poor user experiences.
Diminishing reach is nothing new: YouTube plateaued in 2010, Facebook in 2017 and now in 2023 Instagram has past the point of diminishing returns in the amount of reach any piece of media can realise and monetise because:
1. The agenda of any central platform is to maximise profits through ads
2. Exponential Growth of media: every MINUTE 500 HOURS of video is uploaded to YouTube
3. Fake users, advertisements & bots drown out real creators*
On BUSHiDO there are no fake users, bots or advertisers, only creatives and their communities directly exchanging money, energy & time through real relationships of value.
Would you rather have 100 supporters paying you $10 / month or 100,000 fake followers paying you nothing?
The new way is focused on quality of supporters instead of quantity of followers
A new ecosystem
for creativity
Music is the connective tissue to creative media. Electronic music in particular because of its ability to blend all different types of genres creatives, labels and groups of artists. We started with music because it's the most broken, our Co-Founders & partners are deeply entrenched in the electronic music community and because artists have the most loyal followers.
Companies like Substack proved the ¨internet’s powers, married to the right business model¨, creates a significantly more abundant ecosystem that gives more control to artists and labels, while providing supporters with a higher quality, ad-free experience. A new generation of writers are making their livelihoods with subscriptions. More than 17 thousand writers are earning money on Substack, with the top 10 publishers collectively making more than $25M / yr. Readers have paid writers more than $300M
BUSHiDO sees a similar path unfolding with musicians and any creative. We believe in free art much like the free press which gives us the responsibility of figuring out better way to pay artists who do not see financial rewards from other services.
To achieve this ambitious mission, we have to do much more than build resilient software. We have to support a new ecosystem for music & media: one that
Reimagines the economics around ownership
Rewards positive behaviour
Gets copyright right
In such a network, creatives can save time without distracting ads and make billions that would otherwise have been sent interrupting creativity with irrelevant ads.
Communities
of Value
Each new artist who joins BUSHiDO brings with them communities filled with some of the most interesting people in the world, making the network more valuable for all.
Today, creatives with 9k followers are earning up to 100x more money 100x faster than Spotify/YouTube. This is happening because musicians have the most loyal followings and because their supporters want ad free experiences, unique benefits like unreleased music, unique experiences, tickets, merch and video chats with the artists.
As the network scales, so do the platform’s capabilities, opportunities, and impact. And the larger the networks get, the greater the benefits are for all, causing more growth.
BUSHiDO is a new type of network. We have been called a social network, a streaming service, and a platform, but none of those really fit.
BUSHiDO is a a Creator Exchange that has emerged because:
1. Creatives made the decision to honour their work by setting fair prices
2. Communities want support directly to receive deeper connections & benefits
3. Rights holders can receive payments from licenses
Currently BUSHiDO offers streaming, ticketing, promotion, licensing & payments on your website.
Multi tier Subscriptions are the fastest way for creatives to monetise top supporters. Early 2024 we will be releasing a first-of-its-kind Near Real Time Clearance Exchange that will allow artists/labels to make remixes/covers without having to guess who owns the rights, what territories apply and who gets paid splits.
The Journey is the
Destination
Once we nailed the mechanics of streaming as the foundation of our ecosystem, artists have requested we expand our suite of services to include other revenue streams such as: licensing, ticketing & merch along with promotion tools to break through the noise and diminishing returns from social networks & legacy streaming services.
Our underground movement has been funded by angels committed to supporting a better ecosystem and artists donating the thousands of dollars earned from their supporters to pay engineers to maintain the service while innovating new solutions that collect and put Millions in the pockets of artists.
BUSHiDO is a top performing source of income for artists/labels. Channels with 9k Instagram followers have earned $42,000 from 100+ supporters. Many respected artists in our community such as Ida Engberg, Anthony Middleton, Jo.Ke have seen these impressive results and been inspired to start channels of their own to honour their creativity. Demand for our services has reached an all time high signalling the immediate need to grow our business.
To date, we have raised $200,000 to build a world class streaming service. For context, our competitor Patreon raised $415M. BUSHiDO built a superior solution for 1/200,000th the cost.
We are committed to growing BUSHiDO with support from artists, and this community round is one way to keep our soul pure without being forced to grow / monetise too fast or sacrifice the essence of our mission.
We, like Substack are doing this because the evolution of BUSHiDO changes if the artists who are building their businesses on it are owners too. It not only allows us to give back to the community who instilled their trust in us while also representing an opportunity for artists who use BUSHiDO to participate in the benefits that come from building this network—including the financial upside.
Project
Liberian Girl
When the hot DJ duo Bedouin was ready launch their channel by offering a one time purchase of the closing set from their Pacha Residency in 2022, a smart lawyer pointed out that monetising their edit of Michael Jacksons Liberian Girl in the set would violate copyright infringement potentially running the exploding career of their successful ascend to the top of Beatport´s Charts and playing to sold out gigs/festivals around the world. ¨Come back to us when you have a Copyright Solution¨. 12 months later the project attracted expert engineers who advised how to build a better solution.
After 10 months of R&D/building, we released v1 of the first Near Real Time Clearance Exchange for artists like Bedouin to clear copyright music and developed Track ID technology for Artists/Labels/Publishers to pay creatives for doing their job of sharing new music.
As BUSHiDO grows to accommodate more artists & labels, musicians, scientists, and culture makers of all kinds, we see a path to hundreds of millions of subscriptions and a significant cultural impact.
Investment
Opportunity
In order for BUSHiDO to thrive, having as many artists invest as possible involved will only allow us to stay pure to our mission. We, like Substack, are doing a Community Round because the evolution of BUSHiDO changes for the better if the very artists who are building their businesses on it are owners too. It not only allows us to give back to the community who instilled their trust in us while also representing an opportunity for the artists who use BUSHiDO to participate in the benefits that come from building this network—including the financial upside.
As BUSHiDO grows to accommodate more artists, labels, distributors, podcasters, videomakers, musicians, scientists, and culture makers of all kinds, we see a path to hundreds of millions of subscriptions and a significant cultural impact.
BUSHiDO is being used by all types of creatives beyond underground electronic music, expanded into mainstream music and beyond into any craft: tattoo artists, painters and yogis. Anyone from anywhere with any creative profession can benefit.
If you've been been part of any underground movement, love the arts, activism and see the potential to scale our operation, we invite you to be a part of BUSHiDO and welcome your support.
We’re delighted that GOLDCAP, MOSE, Ida Engberg are leading our community round, joined by Founding Partner Thomas Ermacora, Chris Spano along with a number of inspiring angels. We are looking forward to hundreds of other creatives to invest alongside this respected group.
We are excited about our ambitious mission that is overflowing with gravitas through our activism initiative that requires all creatives give back to causes that make the world a better place.
If you are interested in supporting the future of creativity, we’d love to have you join us in building this new ecosystem for anyone to honour their work.
Customizable UI
Full white label solution allows you to own branding and create custom subdomains connected to your website
Search
Advanced search offers with detailed filtering and customized search options, enabling more specific and in-depth searches based on particular keywords and interests.
Bushido API
Preclear music or request a license through our Rights Management Solution Liberian Girl
The
The editable nature of APIs may vary depending on the features allowed and policies set by the API provider.
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From world class electronic musicians to legendary artists to indy film makers and painters. Bushidos tools work for all creatives
GOLDCAP
37K Instagram Followers
15K Total Revenue (USD)
2 Top Supporters
45 Community
COSMIC AWAKENINGS
9K Instagram Followers
46K Total Revenue (USD)
2 Top Supporters
113 Community
Leadership
Necessity is the mother of invention
Jordan Katz
CEO & Co-Founder
Full stack entrepreneur and product innovator, trusted relationships with world class engineers, leaders, artists and businesses. With a proven track record for growing global media companies and startups, his 20-year career began helping launch Fox Sports, Golf Channel, NHL Network and Facebook’s Partner Team. Jordan’s own startups include Create.It, a platform built to help brands like Red Bull, FOX, Hennessy and the USOC identify World Class talent for sponsorship and distribute video. n 2018, he co-founded a crypto trading platform for institutions and applied the same infrastructure / logic to build the foundation for David’s Music Exchange with the mission of increasing wealth for all by combining signals from music streaming and social platforms to by providing artists and managers with signals to predict which cities would sell out, what sponsors had the most relevance to an audience and to identify up and coming talent. When the pandemic happened, a community of DJ's asked us to build a better way to pay musicians so the team pivoted to the video subscription space, releasing Bushido, an evoloving amalgamation of creativity. The common thread in all of Jordan’s projects has been building tools to increase wealth for creators, talent and artists.
Berge Sahakian
Co-Founder
Berge Sahakian or as he’s better known as Goldcap draws inspiration from almost anything; art, music, poetry, different cultures, films, soundscapes and nature. During his youth, he picked up instruments like the electric/acoustic guitar, bass guitar, classical piano, and various different percussive instruments which tuned his musical ear from a tender age. All the inspiration that goes into his work creates a well-crafted organic electronic sound experience that immediately takes us on a trip around the globe.
Creator of The Goldcap popular weekly Podcast Series 105 episodes, creator on Sol Selects and many notable labels around the world. Collaborations with different musicians contributes to an eclectic archive and one of the most diverse, rich communities of creators in the world.
A true musician at heart, in 2018 after years of not seeing results from the countless hours of work invested to creating premium music asked a team of product innovators to build a profitable version of YouTube + Spotify. Four years later and 4 different versions, Berge has been the heartbeat of product innovation working with 10x engineering teams to innovate by filling gaps in the market, making referrals to 300 musicians in his network.
Jason Rys
Special Adviser
Jason Rys CTO, Wixen Publishing
1. Current Chair of the Dispute Resolution Committee advisory board of The MLC, we create the dispute/conflict policies for all music publishers in the US
2. Ex Publisher Chair of the CISAC Common Agreements Format, this deals with the exchange of data related to agreements between songwriters and publishers, helped move the standard from legacy EDI to JSON, he recently stepped down to focus more on #3
3. Member of the CISAC Common Works Registration Format, this format is how song-level music publishing data is ingested into streaming services, pushing the same EDI->JSON transformation to unlock API-driven communication between publishers, PROs, and streaming services.
4. Member of the National Music Publishers Association Artificial Intelligence Working Group, we tackle industry issues around AI and its implications/effects on songwriters and music publishers, he recently testified to the Library of Congress on AI/music/copyright as part of its roundtable discussions
