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Music Label Launches Direct-to-Fan Platform to Boost Artist Revenue

Harmony Heights Records Debuts Direct-to-Fan Marketplace, Tripling Artist Payouts Overnight

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — November 19, 2025 — Independent label Harmony Heights Records today unveiled Harmony Direct, a white-label storefront that allows its 140-plus artists to sell albums, vinyl bundles, and VIP experiences directly to fans while keeping 80 % of every dollar spent. Early adopters earned an average of US $20 per album sale—the equivalent of 200,000 Spotify streams—within the first 24 hours of launch.

The move arrives as streaming growth plateaus in mature markets and labels hunt for higher-margin revenue. According to industry analyst Revelator, independent labels that layer direct-to-fan (D2F) sales onto streaming can boost net profit per release by 220 % without additional marketing spend.

Harmony Heights’ platform, powered by a quiet integration with EVEN’s commerce engine, goes live inside every artist’s existing Linktree, TikTok Shop, and Spotify profile, eliminating friction that has historically capped D2F conversion at 2–3 %.

“Streaming built the audience, but it never paid the rent,” said Maya Delgado, CEO of Harmony Heights Records. “By giving fans the option to buy music two weeks before it hits DSPs—plus instant HD downloads, alternate artwork, and ticket pre-sales—we’re seeing conversion rates jump to 11 % among fans who click through. That’s not a niche upsell; that’s a primary income layer.”

Delgado’s claim is backed by third-quarter data from Too Lost Distribution, which migrated 400,000 artists to an identical storefront model in April and clocked US $1.4 million in fan purchases during the first 30 days, with 42 % of buyers returning for a second purchase within 60 days.

Harmony Heights expects to surpass those figures by Q1 2026 after adding collectible cassettes and eco-vinyl pressed on demand through a new partnership with SoundCloud’s merch pipeline.

The label is also sharing granular analytics—email addresses, zip codes, SKU-level sales—directly with artists, reversing a decades-old practice in which labels withheld customer data. “Ownership of the fan relationship is non-negotiable going forward,” Delgado said. “If we don’t provide it, another platform will.”

Market research firm MIDiA projects that D2F and fan-supported revenue will outgrow ad-supported streaming revenue by 2027, reaching US $3.6 billion globally as Gen-Z listeners increasingly treat music purchases as social tokens rather than mere consumption.

Harmony Heights’ rollout targets that cohort with limited-run drops (500-unit caps), QR-coded lyric sheets that unlock AR experiences, and tiered pricing that starts at US $5 for a lossless single and tops out at US $150 for a test-press vinyl + private Discord channel bundle.

Independent rapper LaRussell—who beta-tested the platform in September—generated US $60,000 in 72 hours from 3,000 superfans, an amount that would have required roughly 27 million streams on a major DSP to match.

“I didn’t need a label advance; I needed a cash register,” LaRussell said. “Harmony Direct turned my Instagram story into a checkout line.”

Harmony Heights will not charge artists upfront fees, instead taking a 20 % revenue share that covers payment processing, customer service, and global VAT compliance. Payouts land daily in the artist’s bank or USDC wallet, a cash-flow advantage over the traditional 45-day label accounting cycle. The platform supports 140 currencies and 30 payment rails, including Klarna and Mobile Money, critical for the label’s growing roster of West Afrobeats and K-hip-hop acts.

“Our mission is to make sure no one with 1,000 true fans has to tour just to recoup studio costs,” Delgado added. “If we can replace 50,000 streams with 50 super-fan sales, we’ve changed the economics of an entire career.”

Starting Friday, every Harmony Heights release will cycle through a 14-day “fan-first” window before wide DSP distribution. Major retailers, including Spotify and Apple Music, have agreed to honor the exclusivity period in exchange for day-one playlist pitching, acknowledging that early fan revenue reduces piracy and increases pre-save momentum.

About Harmony Heights Records

Founded in 2018, Harmony Heights Records is an independent label and distributor headquartered in Nashville, Tenn., with satellite A&R hubs in Lagos, Seoul, and São Paulo. The company’s 140-artist roster spans indie-rock, Afrobeats, bedroom pop, and neo-soul, collectively generating 1.8 billion streams to date. Harmony Heights champions transparent 50/50 net-profit splits, data-rich direct-to-fan commerce, and carbon-neutral physical products.