SongBits Brings Musicians and Fans Together, One Bit at a Time

Startup SongBits created a new solution to an age-old problem in the music industry: All too often, a song becomes a hit, but the songwriter might still barely get by due to the terms of restrictive record contracts. SongBits is offering a way for both up-and-coming and well-established artists to make money directly from their music. At the same time, it’s bringing artists and fans closer together, changing the artist-fan relationship forever. The direct connection between artists and fans fostered by SongBits adds a financial component to the existing emotional and cultural elements fans find in their favorite songs, in a way that's just not been possible in the traditional industry. 

SongBits lets fans purchase “bits” of songs, giving them a chance to take partial ownership in the music made by their favorite artists while giving those musicians a revenue stream that’s never been available to them before. Leveraging Sui technologies like zkLogin, Enoki, and Kiosk, SongBits shares the value of music between the people who make it and those that love listening to it. 

A startup steeped in rock and roll history

SongBits is new — the company just launched publicly in January 2025 after a successful beta period — but it’s built on a foundation of serious musical pedigree. One of its founders is Dave Stewart, a musician, producer, and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee best known for his role in the Eurythmics. His co-founders, brothers Russell and Justin Sheffield, have deep roots in the music industry. Their father, Norman Sheffield, was the first manager of groundbreaking rock band Queen and the founder of Trident Studios, the London studio where scores of musical legends recorded famed works, including the Beatles, Elton John, David Bowie, the Bee Gees, Genesis, Harry Nilsson, Lou Reed, T. Rex, Black Sabbath, and Kiss.

Trident wasn’t just any other studio. It was the first studio in the world to feature eight-track recording equipment, which was breakthrough technology when it opened in the late 1960s. That’s a fitting origin story for SongBits.

“Trident was built for artists by artists. The ethos of the company was ‘You can come here, you can be as creative as you like, and you can use the best equipment in the world,’” said Sheffield. “And that’s what we’re doing with Sui, applying cutting-edge technology to how musicians engage with their fans.”

A modern model for music ownership

Now SongBits is carrying the spirit of that legacy forward — using Web3 technology to support artists by giving them new revenue streams and connecting them directly with fans. 

One long-standing problem with the music industry is the fact that, despite all the money that gets made, very little is distributed to the actual musicians. One recent study estimated the global music industry brought in $28.6 billion in revenue in 2023. Yet only about 10 percent of that goes to the artists making the music, according to Sheffield.

SongBits helps solve this imbalance by letting artists sell up to 50 percent of the streaming rights to songs they create, a real world asset the company calls “bits.” For every bit that gets sold, money goes directly into the artist's or label's pocket. 

On the other side of the equation are the fans, or collectors. Collectors of these bits own a share of the global streaming revenue that gets generated over the lifetime of the song. They decide how many bits to buy, which means they can spend as much or as little as they want — from just a few dollars to tens of thousands. In addition to music rights, artists can offer collectors special perks: think exclusive merch, limited-edition musical releases, or even access to private shows, meet-and-greets, or early ticket sales depending on the amount of bits purchased. It’s all up to the artist or label and what they decide to share.

Artists also have the option to earmark part of a song’s earnings for a charity of their choice.

This structure gives fans a vested interest in the success of their favorite artists. SongBits also provides artists or labels with an Artist Dashboard that lets them directly engage and re-target their SongBits holders and gives them valuable insight into who — and where — these collectors are. That kind of data could help them decide where to go on tour, for example.

On the surface, buying bits of songs is as straightforward as making any other online purchase.

“Part of our mission was always to make it easy for people to understand and to pay for bits in the usual way, like Apple Pay or Google Pay,” said Sheffield. “They don't have to think about wallets and technology. We do that clever stuff with Sui behind the scenes.”

SongBits uses the Enoki platform to create a familiar and easy experience for all users. Through zkLogin, artists and end-users create an account on SongBits with their existing credentials from Google or other services. The system creates a wallet within Enoki's infrastructure, relieving users of the need to learn complicated Web3 paradigms. The Enoki platform also handles gas fees, so users don't need to pay for each and every transaction. 

In addition to Enoki, SongBits relies on Kiosk to manage NFT tokenized assets.

What’s next for SongBits

Although SongBits only recently launched, it’s already seeing successes. Early musicians to embrace the platform include soul singer Joss Stone, who recorded the song “Never Forget My Love” with Dave Stewart, and DJ and producer Ashley Wallbridge, who recently sold out of all 175,000 bits of a song he released through the platform. 

SongBits is also working on a secondary market, allowing bits collectors to sell, buy and swap.

“The technology we put in place with Sui enables us to sell bits too,” said Sheffield. “So that brings the possibility of secondary trading in the marketplace, which we’re building so that fans could sell some of the bits they own.”

In the meantime, many more musicians are in the process of joining the platform — ranging from soul, rock, and pop to dance, and coming from the U.S., the U.K., South America, and Asia — and they’re bringing their legions of loyal fans with them.