Independent record label technology is at the heart of this conversation with Bruno Guez, founder of Revelator and longtime music industry innovator. From his early years as a UCLA ethnomusicology student and world music DJ to managing a boutique label and curating music for luxury hotels, Bruno’s career reflects a deep commitment to cultural storytelling and practical problem-solving.
Building Tools for Indie Label Survival
Bruno founded Revelator after experiencing firsthand the operational challenges of running an independent label in the streaming era. Designed as a B2B music platform, Revelator handles rights management, royalty processing, and music data analytics, offering indie labels much-needed transparency and automation. His mission: to simplify operations and ensure that artists and rights holders are paid quickly and fairly.
Navigating Streaming’s Economic Shift
Bruno explains how streaming’s shift from dollars per download to fractions of a cent per stream transformed revenue models. With this shift came massive increases in reporting complexity—millions of data lines replacing simple monthly statements. For indie labels, this meant adapting to new economics while maintaining creative momentum.
Blending Culture, Creativity, and Technology
Beyond technology, Bruno reflects on the importance of cultural curation—whether building compilations, DJing, or creating the “sonic architecture” of hotels. His perspective blends music distribution expertise with a love for discovery, proving that even in a tech-driven market, human connection remains central to success.
Listen to the full episode to explore how technology, transparency, and cultural passion can help independent labels thrive in a complex digital world.
Highlights
- “I built the platform initially to help my business transform into a digital business.”
- “Revelator became a B2B platform that serves distributors, record labels, publishers, artist management companies.”
- “I really loved connecting this lifestyle experience around music and helping people explore and discover.”
- “The thesis has been how to accelerate the flow of funds to all the rights owners.”
Guest: Bruno Guez, Founder and CEO, Revelator
Founder of Revelator, and a former Director on the Board of Merlin Network, the leading music rights agency, Bruno Guez brings over twenty-five years of experience as a seasoned digital music executive working with Chris Blackwell’ Island Records and Guy Laliberte’s Cirque du Soleil. With a strong vision to retool the creative industry, Bruno saw the opportunity to provide a game-changing technology platform for global rights administration and royalty management using blockchain technology, with a goal of enabling efficient and fully transparent reporting, real-time payments and innovative revenue streams for rights owners, creators, artists, producers, and publishers around the world.
Links:
- URL: revelator.com
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brunoguez/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/brunoguez @brunoguez
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