Vezt Review (2023): A Game-Changer, so What Happened?
- April 14, 2023
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Ever wonder if it were possible to invest in the music industry? Be able to make money from your favorite music? Be a part of the music industry without being in it at all? Not as a recording artist, producer, manager, or any type of executive? Well, thanks to Instagram of all places, I found Vezt, a music investing app.
Vezt is a mobile app that allows people to invest money into their favorite songs. It gives music fans the ability to share the royalty rights of songs they love. I spent some time using this app for a while. I will share my experience here in this review and determine if Vezt is worth investing your money into.
Overall, I believe Vezt has the potential to change the music industry for the better. However, they have a long way to go before this can happen. They have a lot of work to do, issues to resolve, and areas to improve upon.
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About Vezt
According to its website, Vezt is the first-ever music rights marketplace. It is a platform designed for music fans to share the royalty rights of their favorite songs and benefits from the money they make. To make this possible, Vezt provides artists, songwriters, and producers with funding collected from their fans. In return, fans receive a share of the royalties earned from their favorite songs. The amount of earnings fans receive is based on how much money they contribute to the song.
How does Vezt handle a song’s royalties for fans? Well, they collect song royalties on behalf of fans from performing rights groups, music publishers, and record labels. Royalties handled by Vezt are tracked through blockchain tech.
Vezt cofounders are Steve Stewart and Robert Menendez. They, along with the rest of the Vezt team, all come from the money, tech, and entertainment fields.
Initial Song Offering (ISO)
The blockchain tech Vezt uses is called an Initial Song Offering (ISO). Every song that is available on Vezt has an ISO. It includes a set date and time when royalty rights will be made available to the public. Also, an ISO sets how much in total royalties music fans can contribute to their favorite song. That ISO is open until the set date and time expires, or the ISO sells out, whichever comes first. The Vezt app is a digital marketplace of ISOs where artists and songwriters share a percentage of their song’s earnings.
How to Use Vezt?
First, download their app from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. Next, make an account and add the debit card you plan to use to contribute to an ISO. After that, you can see the songs that have active ISOs. Hopefully, you will find your favorite song. If not, you can always send Vezt an ISO request. Once you find a song you like, you can add funds to its ISO if it is not sold out or expired. Finally, you place your order and officially hold rights to the song.
The ‘Learn’ section in the app states you will get your share of royalties once per quarter. However, this is after Vezt notifies the ISO’s payment sources. Depending on the ISO, the payment sources are either record labels, performing rights organizations, or publishers, depending on the details of the ISO.
My Experience Using Vezt
As stated earlier, Vezt does have the potential to change the music industry for the better. The tech era we now live in has made access to music easier for fans. However, this caused the value of music to drop. As more fans are now streaming all of their favorite songs for one low price per month, it is now hard for the music industry to benefit. Vezt can put money back into the music industry that is lost from streaming. However, based on my experience using this app, Vezt does have a long way to go before this can happen.
What I do like about Vezt is its idea. Music fans being able to buy into their favorite song’s royalties as they are being earned is a great idea. As an avid music listener, I like how I can buy into my favorite songs that are available on this app. Knowing that millions of other fans are also streaming songs I can buy into on Vezt, my share in royalties would be a lot because the song is gaining from streams.
This idea can put money back into the music industry. Each ISO on Vezt has a set amount of time available and a set amount of money in royalties’ users can buy into. Both the schedule and total amount of royalties available are set by the artist or their label. The ISO begins when the schedule expires or the ISO sells out, whichever comes first. I’m sure artists and labels who set aside a portion of their royalty earnings to Vezt users would prefer the ISO sells out. This way, they can make their money back quickly.
Concerns
However, like many startups, Vezt has a lot to learn, add, and improve before their potential can become reality. First, many ISOs that currently available on the app are older songs. Second, other ISOs that are available are of songs that were never released as a single by the artist or their label. As a result, it is hard to tell if the song is worth buying a share of their royalties. Finally, users have to provide a debit or credit card to make an ISO purchase. However, they can only get their earnings via PayPal.
My main concern with this app is the payments of royalty shares to users. For example, since I first started using Vezt, I put $30 into only four songs. After waiting a couple of months, I only earned ten cents. However, after a while, I stopped getting paid at all. I know the first ten cents I earned is accurate because ISO’s that cost $5,000 – $10,000 have three to four-tenths of percent rights acquired. However, I should be getting more money and I am not. I am not even getting any more pennies.
What is even more messed up about this is I know artists and labels who approve these ISOs are getting their money. A lot of ISOs on Vezt do sell out before the available time expires, especially if the song is popular. However, so far, I have received little to none of the money I deserve.
More Vezt User Feedback
The flaws Vezt currently have are taking notice of other app users who tried them out. In both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, users who take the time to write a review have expressed two main concerns:
- The app itself is filled with bugs and has not been updated in a while.
- They too have complained that they did not get all or any of the money they deserve from ISOs. Some kept it safe like me and only spent a few dollars. However, others have spent hundreds, even thousands of dollars on this app.
One app user recently reached out to me via email to share his own experience with Vezt. He told me how he invested over $3,400 into Vezt within the last two and a half years. He too did not get a single penny back for the amount of money he put in. Every time he reaches out to Vezt, they tell him a different story. Like many others, he too now questions if some of the ISOs or Vezt as a whole are legit.
How Can Vezt Improve?
Vezt is slowly rolling out new features, such as stats on a song streaming performance, an ISO watch list, and the ability to share your rights-holder certificates. However, besides song performance stats, the rest of these new features are not necessary right now.
I believe Vezt should first focus on improving how they pay their app users. Right now, people view them as a scam because royalty shares are not being paid. It does not make sense because people are spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on their ISOs. Not only is this starting to reflect in their app store ratings, as it has been decreasing lately in both app markets. However, this could bring about some legal issues that I am sure Vezt does not want to deal with.
After improving how royalty shares are paid to users, Vezt should offer an incentive for users to keep buying ISOs. I have not bought an ISO since after my first four purchases because I do not see their value yet. This sucks because I have come across ISOs of songs I enjoy listening to. An example I have is a referral program that pays current users money to buy an ISO of their choice for every new user they refer to the app.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I do not think Vezt is a scam at all. In fact, I like the platform and its concept. I believe they have the potential to change the music industry for the better. However, they have a long way to go, and a lot to figure out before their true potential could be realized. I hope Vezt can figure things out fast because they are losing trust in the public.
Until they make some critical changes, I do not intend on buying any more ISOs again soon. I still wish them all of the best as I will be watching them and their progress. In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed my Vezt review. Please leave your thoughts in the comments section below. If you have any suggestions on what I could write about next, please Contact Me and share your ideas.
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