Streaming is Dead
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New Music Economy
No Military Grade AI
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Human Made
No Corporate Exploitation
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Music that Matters
TerribleCat is an independent music streaming app and label for new music made by actual people — the algorithm-free alternative to corporate streaming platforms starts today.
▶ Subscribe Directly Here See the AppWhat Is This? (The Mission)
TerribleCat Music is a new kind of music platform — built by a working musician (hi, I'm Paul) to reclaim new and original music from the systems that have stripped it of control and visibility.
New and original music still holds incredible value — that's exactly why major labels buy out any independent label that starts gaining real momentum. But too often, once they take over, the catalog disappears, the competition fades, and the money flows back to the same small group of gatekeepers. The result? Less space for real, human-made music to thrive.
I've spent the last year designing and building this app from scratch because I couldn't shake one simple idea: What if we stopped handing over music's future to tech companies and took it back for ourselves? What if there was a place where new and original music could grow on its own terms — without algorithms, corporate middlemen, or the pressure to "go viral"?
This is that place. TerribleCat is a streaming app and independent label built for one reason: to create a real ecosystem for real music. Where human beings get paid to make albums, and listeners get something better than the same old catalog spit out by a recommendation engine.
The more people who sign up and listen, the sooner we get advertisers.
The sooner we get advertisers, the sooner I start paying people real $$ for albums.
The more original albums we have, the more regular listeners will join the paid tier.
The more people who join the paid tier, the more I'll be able to pay artists.
Just some simple math: Spotify today has about 678 million monthly users, with 268 million of them paying around $11.99/month. That adds up to over $3 billion a month in gross subscription revenue flowing through the system.
We're talking about $1.4 billion to $3 billion a month. Even a fraction of that subscriber base would be enough to build something real. We don't need everyone — just a slice of the people out there who want new music made by human beings.
This isn't just another streaming app. It's a music platform built by musicians, for musicians — where artists get paid upfront, releases are exclusive, and no corporate middlemen touch the art.
And here's what you get as a listener: brand new music that hasn't been focus-grouped, algorithm-optimized, or watered down by some corporate committee. Real artists making real music without anyone telling them to "make it more like that song that went viral." No AI-generated hooks, no manufactured emotions, no streaming-platform-friendly 30-second intros designed to game the algorithm. Just pure, unfiltered creativity from human beings who have something to say.
Who knows — maybe we'll even get some music the world has never heard before again. Music that pushes boundaries, tells stories that matter, and reminds us why we fell in love with music in the first place.
Build the New Economic Music Ecosystem
Jump start the new Music Economy:
Sneak Peek of the App
Here's what you'll experience inside TerribleCat Music:
Listen Now
Check out the latest recording. Browse new featured tracks
Music Player
High-quality audio player for human-made music
Radio Discovery
Featured stations and indie discovery with real listening metrics