Artists were promised independence: it never materialized
Introducing the Epoch Music App and the Epoch One Music Guild — 2,100 independent artists, real equity, and a permanent endowment that benefits independent artists. forever.
Offered by Phantom Power Music & The Epoch One Music Guild
2,100 Independent Artists, Real Equity, and a Permanent Endowment That Benefits Independent Artists Forever.
By Julie Costello, Founder & CEO, Phantom Power Music
We are independent musicians, just like you. We know what it feels like to get a $5.00 royalty check after spending $5,000 making and marketing the music. We know what it feels like to watch a song you spent months making earn less in a year of streaming than a cup of coffee. We know what it feels like to be told that the gatekeepers are necessary, that the system is too complicated to change, that exposure is worth something.
We stopped believing that a long time ago. And we know you have too. So we built a way out.
THE BROKEN PROMISE
Streaming was supposed to democratize music. The promise was: remove the physical distribution barrier, let anyone upload anything, let the best music rise. Labels would still matter, but the playing field would level. Artists would find their fans. The pennies would add up.
They didn't.
The top three streaming platforms paid independent artists a fraction of a cent per stream while capturing billions in enterprise value built almost entirely on independent content. The gatekeepers didn't disappear — they multiplied. More "independent" labels taking a 20% cut on the pennies. More platforms (66 and counting). Marketing to algorithms instead of fans. From the A&R executive to the indie playlist curator. From the physical distributor to a VC-backed platform that owns the fan relationship and shares none of it with us.
And now: AI.
AI - IS A CRISIS FOR INDEPENDENT MUSIC - BUT NOT FOR THE REASONS EVERY IS TALKING ABOUT.
Most of the conversation about AI focuses on the wrong thing — whether AI can make a good song, whether it sounds like a real artist, whether it will replace human creativity. Those are interesting philosophical questions worth debating.
The real issue is economic. Most AI-generated music carries no royalty obligation. It costs almost nothing to produce at scale. And, here’s the real rub, it competes in the same finite streaming royalty pools as human artists. Those pools already pay fractions of a cent per play, with the lion's share going to the top 1% of commercially successful artists.
Every AI stream dilutes a human artist's payout - even further. Not someday. Now. Streaming platforms have no structural incentive to distinguish between human and AI content. A stream is a stream. Ad revenue is ad revenue. The platforms benefit from volume regardless of origin. Once again, the artists absorb the loss — and seven million independent artists globally have no alternative infrastructure. No exit. No one protecting their future as the royalty math gets even worse.
"Focusing on regulating AI is like regulating streaming twenty-five years ago. You can slow it down. But we cannot stop it. Fighting that is a losing battle. What we can do is build something that doesn't depend on it." — Julie Costello, Founder & CEO, Phantom Power Music
THE ANSWER: OPT-OUT
The Epoch Music App serves two purposes. First, it requires artists to self-verify that they are making human-made music as a condition of using the platform. Second, it resets the entire royalty collection process — giving artists access to their own revenue stream, independently managed, for the first time.
But we didn't just build another streaming platform. We built a governance structure from the ground up that cannot be amended without unanimous founding shareholder consent — which will include independent artists. For the first time since the streaming era began, independent artists have a home where human-made music is the only music that belongs. A place where discovery can flourish again. Where a fan finds a real person on the other end of a song.
HOW IT WORKS: FANS PAY ARTISTS DIRECTLY
The Epoch Music App is a direct-to-artist payment tool built on Bitcoin's Lightning Network. Before you click out at the mention of "crypto" — you don't need to know how it works to use it. Dollars in, dollars out. Artists and fans can transact in the currencies they're already comfortable with (48 supported). No technical knowledge required.
Fans pay artists directly. The artist sets the price, the ownership splits, and the syndication permissions. The artist receives 100% of the payment. The platform charges an additive 10% contribution on top, paid by the fan. If a fan sends an artist $1.00, they pay $1.10. We collect the pennies — not you.
Artists on Epoch are already earning ten to twenty times what they received through traditional distribution. Not because the numbers are inflated — because the structure is finally honest.
NOT ANOTHER MUSIC PLATFORM. A MISSION.
Every platform in the music industry spends money to acquire artists. Spotify spends it on ads. DistroKid spends it on search placement. TuneCore spends it on conference booths. The money flows outward to even more middlemen, never back to artists. We designed Epoch to do the exact opposite.
Instead of paying Google to show you an ad, we're offering 2,100 independent artists a shot at equity ownership in something they can help build and steer for decades to come. The acquisition budget is redirected from ad platforms to the people already doing the work.
THE EPOCH ON MUSIC GUILD - A PATH TO OWNERSHIP.
21 Epoch One Founding Artists
Will hold 0.21% ownership in Phantom Power Music, Inc. — invited personally, chosen to carry the public story of the platform before it is proven.
210 Epoch One Vanguard Ambassadors
Will hold 0.02% stakes with an option to purchase an additional 0.03% upon full vest — artists with community trust who will build the network from their corner of the world.
10 Strategic Artist Partners
Commercially recognized (now independent) artists choosing to operate outside the traditional label system, will hold a separate 0.21% stake each from a reserved pool.
1,869 Vanguard Community Leaders
Can participate in a contractual profit share receiving a quarterly distribution tied directly to the activity they generate on the platform, with a clear pathway to Vanguard Ambassador and the ability to earn an equity stake.
All Guild equity vests over four years — the equivilent of one Bitcoin epoch — tied to real value activity in the Guild: True Fans built, artists recruited, music released, fan payments received. No artist pays for their initial equity grant. It is earned by doing what they are already doing: releasing music, building fans, and telling the truth about how they get paid.
Two thousand one hundred artists who just showed up because - enough is enough.
CAPITAL DEPLOYMENT, WITH RADICAL TRANSPARENCY
Phantom Power Music's revenue structure is written into its founding governance and legally un-amendable without unanimous founding Shareholder consent.
This is not a promise. It is a legal structure.
50% of all net revenue
Will flows into the Epoch One Music Guild Working Fund which will fund artist development grants, recording and touring infrastructure, community education, and quarterly distributions to Guild equity holders globally.
20% of all net revenue
Will be held permanently in the Epoch One Music Endowment — a strategic reserve that compounds forever and at maturity will pay a perpetual dividend to all founding shareholders. Forever. The Endowment can not be sold. If there is ever an acquisition, the endowment is converted to a non-revokable trust.
30% of all net revenue
Will fund platform operations and continued development of tools that service independent artists first.
THE MATH. WHEN IT WORKS, IT WORKS.
Fans spent $63.6 billion on streaming platforms in 2025.* Capturing just 1% of that market is $636 million. Here's what makes that number different from every other platform's pitch:
$573 million goes directly into artists' pockets. Not the platform. Not a label. Not a middleman. The artist sets the price, the fan pays it, and the full dollar passes through. We facilitate the transaction and collect nothing from from the artist.
The remaining $63 million — the 10% additive contribution paid by fans — flows into the Epoch One Music Guild. 70% of that goes straight back to the independent artist community: 50% = $31.8 million into the Guild Working Fund for grants, touring, recording infrastructure, and quarterly distributions; and 20% = $12.7 million into the Epoch One Music Endowment that compounds forever and cannot be sold. The remaining 30% funds platform operations and continued developement of tools that serve artists first.
At just 1% market capture, the Guild Working Fund alone deploys more annually into independent artist development than most major labels spend on their entire artist development budgets.
The old promise was that the pennies would add up. We're putting that theory to the test — by finally building the structure where they actually do.
THE ENDOWMENT - THE 20% PART THAT CAN NOT BE SOLD. EVER.
Once the Epoch Music Guild Endowment reaches the equivilant of 21 Bitcoin, it enters Endowment Maturity. At maturity it will distribute up to 5% of its trailing annual value each year to all founding equity holders: the 2,100 Guild artists, the 10 Strategic Artist Partners, employees, and investors. Epoch Guild artists hold a protected floor of no less than 60% of each Mission Dividend distribution — ensuring that no future capital raise or investor pool can dilute the artists who built the platform.
If the company is ever acquired, the Endowment does not transfer with it. It moves into an irrevocable trust and keeps compounding and distributing permanently to everyone who held equity at the time of acquisition.
Which means an investor — or an artist — in Phantom Power Music has a potential return whether the company sells or not. If it sells, they participate in the asset value. If it doesn't, they participate in the endowment. The two outcomes are independent of each other.
"The mission outlives the company."
ARTIST LED GOVERNANCE - FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HISTORY, ARTISTS DECIDE WHERE THE MONEY GOES
The Epoch One Music Guild is governed in part by the Artist Council — nine elected representatives drawn from across all tiers of the Guild. The Council holds authority over deployment of the Guild Working Fund's discretionary programs: grants, touring support, recording infrastructure, community education. The financial decisions that define what independent music looks like when it is properly funded.
Strategic direction sits with a Board of Directors. But the mission itself is legally protected by the founding governance of Phantom Power Music, Inc., and publicly transparent annually through the Public Record Report.
NOT AN ASK. AN INVITATION.
We are not asking you to trust us. We are asking you to read the documents and judge for yourself. Use the app and broaden your mind. We are not finished. We are not proven. But that's when your input matters most — because the artists who show up before it is easy are the ones who should own it when we prove it works.
Applications for the Epoch One Music Guild open July 2026 at phantompowermusic.io.
Invitation and enrollment open January 2027. Guild spots are limited to 2,100 artists across all tiers.
Founding Artist (Tier 1) — Invitation only. If you think this is you: hello@phantompowermusic.io
Vanguard Ambassador (Tier 2) — Application opens July 2026
Vanguard Community Leader — Get the app, do an Epoch Drop, start building, apply to The Epoch Vanguard Guild
The artists who show up before it is obvious are the ones who will own a piece of what it becomes.
THE FULL DOCUMENTS
We believe in transparency as a founding value — not a legal obligation. Everything we have built is available to read:
• Comprehensive Governance Agreement — the full legal structure of Phantom Power Music, Inc.
• Capitalization Table & Equity Menus — every share class, every pool, every valuation scenario
• Artist Participation Agreement — the full terms of Guild membership
• The Public Record Report — published annually, beginning 2028
• Guild Enrollment Status — updated in real time as spots are filled
*63.6B Reported by Business of Apps based on consumer spending ($53.7B in 2024, $63.6B in 2025) — source: businessofapps.com
Read our governance documents available at phantompowermusic.io · App available at epochmusic.xyz
Phantom Power Music, Inc. · Nashville, TN · SOS #002019703
A Tennessee For Profit Public Benefit Corporation