Music tech startup Nebula has partnered with Supply Chain Music, the white-label distribution platform founded by EMPIRE Founder/CEO Ghazi Shami, to launch what it calls an “earn-before-you-stream” music distribution service.
The platform, announced on Thursday (April 30), lets fans buy a stake in an upcoming track through Nebula’s marketplace, effectively investing in a song before it’s released.
Supply Chain Music then distributes the track to DSPs including Spotify and Apple Music. Once the song is streaming, fans who bought in receive a share of the royalty payouts.
Nebula describes itself as “a first-of-its-kind platform that lets fans own rights to royalty payouts for any song available in its marketplace.” The startup’s co-founder, Fuad Hawit, has previously said the platform allows fans to “foster a deeper connection with their favorite artist by owning a fraction of their song.”
The companies said the new offering provides “upfront cash” to artists “without the trap of debt” and ends the long wait for streaming payouts.
Stephen White, CPO of Supply Chain Music, said: “We believe that sharing music should be a built-in part of the user experience, not a separate or difficult step. We are excited to work with Nebula to add Supply Chain’s distribution capabilities to their service, and take advantage of our global distribution network.”
“We believe that sharing music should be a built-in part of the user experience, not a separate or difficult step.”
Stephen White, Supply Chain Music
Yamen Hawit, Nebula Founding Member and CPO, added: “This is more than just standard music distribution. When superfans own a share of a song, they are more motivated to help promote the artist and expand their distribution reach. This creates a much better financial model for everyone in the music industry including the fan.”
The partnership builds on an earlier partnership between Nebula and Ghazi. In 2023, Ghazi’s EMPIRE partnered with Nebula to feature artist and entrepreneur Money Man by releasing his whole EP through Nebula.
“When superfans own a share of a song, they are more motivated to help promote the artist and expand their distribution reach.”
Yamen Hawit, Nebula
Nebula was founded by Alessandro De Luca, Fuad Hawit and Startup Incubators, and claims to be “a first-of-its-kind platform that lets fans own rights to royalty payouts for any song available in its marketplace.”
The startup said instead of competing for market share, the company “expands the music economy by creating new financial value for artists, fans, and the entire ecosystem.”
Supply Chain Music was launched by Ghazi in March 2023 as a white-label distribution platform separate from EMPIRE.
It offers SaaS and API solutions that allow companies to integrate distribution into their own products, rather than signing deals with artists directly. In November 2025, Supply Chain Music powered the launch of EngineEars Direct, a distribution feature built into Grammy-winning engineer Derek “MixedByAli” Ali’s EngineEars platform, enabling artists to distribute music to over 350 DSPs from within the platform.
EMPIRE was founded by Ghazi in San Francisco in 2010 and has played a key role in launching the careers of artists including Kendrick Lamar, Anderson .Paak, XXXTentacion and Cardi B. More recently, EMPIRE artist Shaboozey’s single A Bar Song (Tipsy) held the longest-leading No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and in February 2026 the artist signed a publishing deal with EMPIRE Publishing, extending his relationship with the company beyond recordings.Music Business Worldwide
