Grammy Award-winning musician, composer, and producer Wyclef Jean says the music industry is broken, which is why he’s now involved with a startup, OpenWav, that’s looking to give the power back to the artists. Through the OpenWav app, launched over the summer, artists can drop new music and exclusives; connect directly with fans; sell merch; host concerts, pop-ups, and listening parties; and more.
Later, the startup plans to offer more assistance to artists using AI tools.
Speaking at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference this week, Jean, now chief creative officer at OpenWav, had harsh words for the state of the music industry, particularly criticizing the business model of streaming services.
“If you’re a new artist, the amount of streams that you have to [accumulate] to get $10,000 is literally a rip-off. So now you have a constant revolt,” he said.
Jean pointed to Cardi B as a recent example of the problem, saying that while people probably thought it was funny that she was on the street selling CDs and vinyl albums (which she did in a TikTok promoting her album), what she was really doing was showing how bad things have become for artists.
Image Credits:OpenWav
To put things in perspective, OpenWav co-founder and CEO Jaeson Ma, who spoke alongside Jean at the event, said, “Right now on Spotify … for $3,000 you have to hit 1 million streams.” Ma is a media industry entrepreneur, investor, and adviser who has backed numerous startups, including Musical.ly (which became TikTok), Triller, Coinbase, Grab, and others, and co-founded multiple media companies and the NFT app OP3N.
Ma explained that the industry’s broken model is why the team at OpenWav is building a direct-to-fan music platform.
Techcrunch event Join 10k+ tech and VC leaders for growth and connections at Disrupt 2025 Netflix, Box, a16z, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Sequoia Capital, Elad Gil — just some of the 250+ heavy hitters leading 200+ sessions designed to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don’t miss the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch, and a chance to learn from the top voices in tech. Grab your ticket before Sept 26 to save up to $668. Join 10k+ tech and VC leaders for growth and connections at Disrupt 2025 Netflix, Box, a16z, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Sequoia Capital, Elad Gil — just some of the 250+ heavy hitters leading 200+ sessions designed to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don’t miss the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch, and a chance to learn from the top voices in tech. Grab your ticket before Sept 26 to save up to $668. San Francisco | REGISTER NOW
“The algorithms are not rewarding music,” he noted, agreeing with a recent social media post from singer Lizzo, who complained about the lack of a “song of the summer” this year.
... continue reading