As the boundaries between music, video and UGC continue to blur, new platforms are reshaping the way artists create, distribute, and sustain their careers. Yoola, a global creator-centric ecosystem, recently launched Yoola Music — a new distribution and monetization platform designed specifically for the needs of today’s creators and production-led studios.
Moving beyond traditional DSPs, which are primarily focused on music consumption and streaming distribution, Yoola Music introduces a full-stack distribution and monetization infrastructure, combining a revenue-share model, direct platform partnerships, advanced fintech payouts, UGC monetization expertise, white-label infrastructure, and a creator-first UX.
Creation in the digital age: how technology supports artists – read in the interview with Yury Smagarinsky, CEO of Yoola.
Many artists today operate on the intersection between video, music, and UGC storytelling. How does Yoola Music support multidisciplinary creative practices?
Yoola is not only about music, but of course, about video as well, as we have over 10 years of expertise and extensive experience in this area. We are about content, storytelling, and continuous engagement with audiences across different formats.
We support multidisciplinary creative practices on several levels. First of all, we help both creators and artists build a cohesive content strategy, where music and video do not exist separately but reinforce each other across every platform where this is possible.
We have also launched Yoola TrackLift initiative that serves as a bridge between artists and a vast network of video creators. An artist uploads a track to the library, and thousands of creators use it as a soundtrack for their stories, challenges, short-form content, or vlogs. It creates that very organic UGC effect, where a song begins to live within user-generated storytelling, bringing the artist reach that simply cannot be bought through advertising.
Yoola Music provides tools and our expertise for full-stack music monetization (Publishing Royalties + Master Rights) across all major platforms as well. Artists receive financial data and all available analytics in one place – within the Yoola dashboard. Yoola Music takes care of the entire technical aspect of things, allowing artists to focus on their creativity.
In addition, Yoola Music supports emerging artists in obtaining and developing Official Artist Channels (OAC) on YouTube. This allows them to consolidate all their content in one place, unlock additional platform features, and build a full-fledged musical brand. Yoola handles the technical side of this integration, ensuring that the artist’s.
How has working closely with creators shaped your understanding of their needs today?
It is important to mention that creators today are small business owners, not just amateurs. And as small business owners, they need transparency, speed, and especially full control – not vague dashboards and 90-day payment terms.
Working with a big network of creators taught us that one-size-fits-all solutions don’t work. That is why we stopped building generic tools. Now we start with a specific problem, existing in the creator industry and build backward from there.
What are the biggest challenges artists and creators face in the current digital ecosystem, and how does Yoola Music aim to address them?
Within the digital landscape the biggest challenge for contemporary creators and artists is still the “black-box” monetization system. Artists’ royalties are regularly passing through rights holders and intermediaries before actually reaching the authors themselves. As a result, it develops multy-layered payment system with labels determining the final amount artists receive. It creates a system where creators do not have a transparent image of what is happening.
Yoola Music modifies this chain of payouts and focuses on empowering creators before their content reaches DSPs. By providing a suite of fintech tools, including different withdrawal options, faster payout processings, automated royalty splits, and a transparent financial dashboard, the platform makes the entire payment cycle simpler and tailored for today’s creators needs.
In your opinion, what ways does financial transparency can directly impact creators’ freedom and experimentation?
I suppose that today financial transparency directly translates into creative freedom.
First of all, it removes the fear. When creators know exactly how much they earn, where the revenue comes from, and when exactly it will be paid – they stop worrying about survival. That mental space is exactly where experimentation and creative process happen. An anxious creator plays it safe, while a confident creator is capable of taking risks and exploring different formats of content.
Secondly, it’s worth mentioning that financial transparency enables reinvestment. Transparent data demonstrates what actually works. That means: which platforms, which formats, which segment of audience. The creator can look at the numbers and analytics and say: “This worked. I will put more time and money here.” Without transparency, they are just trying to guess. However, as all of us know – guessing is not a strategy.
Thirdly, financial transparency builds trustworthy partnerships. When creators work with labels, managers, or platforms, lack of transparency is the number one source of conflict. Real-time reporting removes that friction. Trust allows creators to focus on their craft instead of auditing their partners.
How Yoola Music supports emerging artists and creators who are still developing their personal brand?
Beyond a transparent creator-centric ecosystem designed to foster artists’ growth and gradual brand development, Yoola also offers the Yoola Creator Fund.
We recognize that creators face specific challenges, such as acquiring equipment, hiring talent, securing studio space, or launching product lines. The Yoola Creator Fund is designed to allocate capital to content creators, assisting them with brand development and the funding of creative projects. This solution also fits for creators seeking financial assistance to scale their expansion.
Also, Yoola removes the financial barriers common in the industry. By eliminating fixed costs and providing a transparent 10–15% commission structure (based on the performance), the platform provides a flexible revenue-share model tailored to the contemporary market. To further support global growth, Yoola proposes payment solutions optimized for emerging economies, including cryptocurrency and digital wallets.
One of the key pillars of Yoola Music is the White Label solution. How can this model support independent artistic communities, labels, and creative collectives?
The White Label solution allows independent labels and collectives to launch their own branded distribution platform with enterprise-grade tools: fintech, analytics, and multi-platform distribution. With it, they are keeping royalties, full ownership of their artist relationships and avoiding the investment in costly in-house technology or infrastructure that typically requires significant time and multi-million-dollar development budgets as well. White Label solution: independence at scale.
