TikTok Music isn’t the only music industry platform to announce its closure this week.
MBW has confirmed that Warner Music Group is shutting down Level Music, its digital distribution platform for self-releasing artists.
Level Music, a TuneCore rival launched by WMG in 2018, offers distribution to major streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music and social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram.
In an email sent out to Level Music users today (September 26), seen by MBW, the platform confirms that it has “made the difficult decision to shut down Level in 2025”. The email states that Level will no longer accept new content submissions for distribution or edits to existing releases effective today.
Warner Music Group confirmed the move in a statement to MBW and indicated that it is pushing its resources to ADA, the major’s independent label and artist services arm.
“We’re focusing all of our efforts behind the ADA brand, as we continue to strengthen our global suite of services for artists and label partners across the independent community.”
Warner Music Group
“We’re focusing all of our efforts behind the ADA brand, as we continue to strengthen our global suite of services for artists and label partners across the independent community,” said WMG in a statement.
“We’re taking a truly global approach, and investing in our team and technology, with some exciting announcements in the works.”
Warner’s decision to close Level Music makes it the latest major music company to abandon DIY distribution.
In May 2022, Universal Music Group‘s distribution platform Spinnup ditched DIY distribution and became an invite-only “curated artist discovery and distribution platform.” It then shut down completely in December 2022.
Elsewhere in the letter sent to Level users today, the platform confirms that all live releases “will automatically be taken down” from DSPs on Monday, November 18, 2024, but that users are “welcome to request a takedown of [they’re] content before then.”
“In order to help ensure that your play counts and playlist placements remain intact when you move your music to another distributor, it’s important that you export your assets and metadata from Level,” the email added.
Users’ access to their Level Wallets, aka their accounts on the Level-branded portal where they access and withdraw their ‘Net Receipts’, will be available until Friday, July 11, 2025. Level told its users that they need to withdraw all available funds from their balance before Friday, July 11, 2025.
The platform will then cease operations on Thursday, July 31, 2025 and will be terminating all distribution agreements as of that date.
News of Warner’s sharpened focus on ADA follows a number of strategic moves made by WMG’s independent label and artist services unit this year under ADA President Cat Kreidich.
Just yesterday (September 25), we learned that senior TikTok exec Corey Sheridan is joining ADA as Global Head of Commerce and Revenue.
For the past year and a half, Sheridan has served as Global Music Product Partnerships & Strategy Lead at TikTok and parent company ByteDance.
At TikTok, Sheridan helped secure partnerships with streaming platforms to power TikTok’s ‘Add to Music App’ feature. As reported on Tuesday (September 24), TikTok is shutting down its subscription music streaming platform to focus its resources on this feature.
Elsewhere at ADA, in May, Sarah Ismail was appointed as Managing Director of ADA Asia to drive the company’s ongoing expansion in Asia.
ADA has also recently struck new deals with Kesha’s label, FTS Management, MDM Recordings and South Coast Music Group.
WMG’s focus on its independent label and artist services brand appears to be part of a broader strategy for Warner Music Group.
WMG CEO Robert Kyncl has previously indicated that he’s keen to grow WMG’s presence in the so-called “middle class” artist market.
In March, Warner confirmed that it was considering making a bid for Paris-headquartered music company Believe, but on April 6, it announced that it had decided not to pursue an acquisition bid for the company.
On WMG’s earnings call in May, the company’s leadership team said it would continue to pursue further M&A opportunities.
“It’s our job to survey the market. And if there [are] opportunities that will accelerate our initiatives, we’ll take those,” said WMG’s CFO, Bryan Castellani.
“We have a clear plan to develop this [distribution] area of our ecosystem, and we’re building solutions in-house while staying vigilant about [merger and acquisition] opportunities, which could accelerate our capabilities,” added WMG CEO Robert Kyncl on the call.
News of a distributor-related investment then arrived in July, when, via ADA and Warner Music Brazil, the company acquired a minority stake in UGC platform and distributor Sua Música Group, which claims to own the largest entertainment platform focused on regional music in Brazil.
Sua Música’s services business operates across digital distribution, artist management and publishing. As a DIY distributor, the company already works with and handles royalty management for more than 1,000 independent artists in Brazil.Music Business Worldwide