WHITEHOLE — Mission

Version 1.0 · Effective 2026-08-16 · SAAAD LABS LLC d/b/a WHITEHOLE

The platform, not a reseller

WHITEHOLE is an in-house music platform: the distributor and the streaming service are the same house, operated by SAAAD LABS LLC. There is no middle layer taking a cut between the artist and the listener, and no catalog licensed in bulk from somewhere else. Music here was placed here, on purpose, by the people who made it.

Music is worth what a record is worth

The economics start from ownership, not from fractions of a cent set by someone else's market. A download costs $0.99 and nets its makers $0.7105 after the songwriter's statutory share and the platform fee. A paid-tier stream pays purchase parity: one hundred plays is treated as the listening equivalent of owning the record, so each play accrues one hundredth of an owned copy. The Patron tier is a flat $20 a month — priced like buying a vinyl a month, deliberately not priced like other streaming services. Every one of these numbers is published, and artists can check the arithmetic on their statements.

No pay-to-play, ever

Artists never pay to release. No upload fees, no listing fees, no promotion tax. The platform earns a stated 15% on downloads and the margin on subscriptions — if WHITEHOLE cannot live on that, it does not deserve to hold anyone's catalog.

Purchases are permanent, rights stay home

When a listener buys a track, they keep it — permanently, re-downloadable forever, survivable past catalog changes. When an artist uploads one, their masters stay theirs under a non-exclusive agreement, and their composition rights never enter the deal at all: those belong to writers, publishers, and their societies.

Lawful by architecture

Streaming other people's art is licensed activity, and WHITEHOLE treats the law as a design input rather than a checkbox. Delivery is gated by the platform itself until every required licence and filing is actually in effect — the gate is computed from the filings, and nobody, including the operator, can switch it off by hand. Usage is reported to the collecting societies that pay songwriters, exactly as played.

Where this goes

WHITEHOLE is being built toward a larger idea: a platform and creator-suite company where the tools artists work with, and a real say in the platform's direction, accrue to the people who make the music. Those layers ship one at a time, and only when the code and the paperwork make them true — announced here when they are real, not before.

US-only at launch · invite-only beta · operated by SAAAD LABS LLC, Jersey City, NJ