Why Every Version Creates Value

After my band deal ended, I had to figure out how creators actually make money.

Producing records.
Selling samples.
Selling hooks.
Licensing beats + hooks.

I tried every model I could find.

One of those was BeatStars.

In 2021, I uploaded a song called "Lose Yourself."

A beat I co-produced with Daniel.
A hook I performed and wrote with Benjamin.

A non-exclusive license.

Anyone could buy it, record their own version, and release it.

Five years later, that same song showed up somewhere I never expected.

Ben, a school teacher and rapper from England licensed the track.

He wrote his own verses.
Recorded his own version.

And performed it on Britains got talent.

Four yeses.
A standing ovation.

Simon Cowell.
KSI.

Millions of viewers on national television.

Then his school choir recorded a new version.

New harmonies.
New arrangements.

A version of a version.

Built from the same source material.

The song was still evolving five years after I uploaded it.

The license worked.
The collaboration worked.
The creativity worked.

But the infrastructure stopped halfway through the process.

The original version lived in one system.

The new version lived in another.

Distribution happened somewhere else.
Royalties were collected somewhere else.
Metadata lived in spreadsheets.
Payments happened manually.

The versions were connected creatively.

But disconnected economically.

That's the problem.

Music doesn't stop at the first transaction.

One version inspires another.
One creator creates opportunities for the next.
One audience becomes another audience.

Value keeps moving.

The infrastructure doesn't.

That's why every version should pay.

So creators can participate in what they collectively create together.

The original creator.
The remixer.
The adapter.
The performer.
The collaborator.

When value is created, value should flow.

Automatically.

That's what we're building with vers1ons.

Infrastructure that connects source material to everything that comes after it.

So when a version becomes another version...

the relationship doesn't disappear.

Applications for the vers1ons private beta are now open.

For artists, producers, remixers, and rightsholders who believe collaboration deserves better infrastructure.

Apply at vers1ons.com/apply

I'm David Johnston.
Founder & CEO of vers1ons.

The next era of music will finally work for the people who actually make it.