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Trending on Billboard Kodak Black is collaborating with the music discovery platform Audius to launch a new artist coin. Timed to Yak’s annual Kodak Day celebration in his hometown of Pompano Beach, Fla., the rapper will distribute the artist coin, called $YAK. $YAK holders will be able to access unreleased music, stems and other behind-the-scenes […]

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Over his legendary career, MixedByAli has accumulated multiple Grammys and worked with some of the biggest artists in the world, including Kendrick Lamar and SZA. Now, he’s changing the way music is made, shared, heard and even sold.

Back in 2019, MixedByAli reinvented himself as the CEO of EngineEars, a SaaS platform built to streamline every step of the music-making process, and empower creators to advertise and distribute their art without relying on a major label or DSP.

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“Ultimately going through the journey of becoming who I am, I’ve reached every brick wall that you can imagine,” MixedByAli tells Billboard over Zoom. “As an independent contractor trying to build a sustainable business for myself as an audio engineer, I felt that there wasn’t any tools that helped streamline that [process]. So we founded EngineEars around 2019 and started hosting full day workshops where I’d tell story from sleeping on Top Dawg’s couch all the way to winning Pulitzers for Damn and beyond.”

With its latest innovation, EngineEars DIRECT, the platform officially becomes the music industry’s first fully integrated operating system — a browser-based ecosystem where artists, engineers, and studios can take a song from inception to global release without ever leaving the platform. In partnership with Ghazi’s Supply Chain — the new white-label distribution network founded by Ghazi, CEO of EMPIRE — EngineEars users can now distribute music to over 350 DSPs with just a few clicks, all while keeping 100% of their earnings.

But DIRECT goes beyond distribution. From their EngineEars profiles, artists can sell high-quality digital downloads, offer merch bundles, and connect directly with fans — creating a seamless bridge between creative control and commercial independence. It’s the next evolution in Ali’s vision to democratize the music industry, removing the friction between studio, artist, and audience.

“Derek and the EngineEars team have built an incredible platform for engineers, artists, and consumers to collaborate and promote their music worldwide and we are happy to provide a robust white label distribution platform in Supply Chain for all creativity to thrive,” Ghazi tells Billboard in a statement.

Below, Billboard chats with MixedByAli to talk about how EngineEars DIRECT came to life, what this partnership with Ghazi means for creators, and how they plan to reinvent the way music is experienced forever.

Take me back to birth of EngineEars. What was it at first and how has the program has evolved through this new collaboration?

So [EngineEars] was at first this barebones solution of: You sign up, create a profile, post their credits and services that they offer. Think LinkedIn for music creatives, right? Then the platform itself allowed that audio engineer to collaborate with the artist on their profiles, book them for services, and use our workflow to facilitate that collaboration. So through that, we raised millions in venture funding that continued the overall vision of the platform that granted started with audio engineers as our entry point, but the ultimate goal was building this operating system where independence can flourish like never before.

Artists can have transparency on projects that they’re currently in flight with, or studio booking capabilities, like an AirBnB type of solution too. But ultimately we wanted to now take that mix and master they created via our platform, and distribute it on DSPs. Which is what our collaboration with Ghazi’s Supply Chain is. An artist for the first time can come to one platform, to book a studio, get a song mixed and mastered and then after completion of that project — why would you download those files and go to TuneCore or UnitedMasters When you can distribute through EngineEars as well now?

Why did now feel like the right time to collaborate with Ghazi and make this move?

I felt like now music industry tech is flourishing and just because of the conversations and those questions about AI-generated compositions. There’s a lot of movement in this space right now. This ecosystem that we built is asking that question: What is true independence today? Even these independent artists, using these other platforms, are now still owned by the majors. By us going with a company like EMPIRE and Ghazi, just because of his foundation of how he pioneered the independent market with them, we have a chance to really disrupt the industry.

You touched on this a little bit, but curious how your mission statement has pivoted as a company as a result of new DSP and AI developments?

By providing solutions. On that notion with distribution: Streaming payment and royalties with artists are just complete nonsense. This is why we introduced direct-to-consumer sales, where using our platform can not just distribute a song to DSPs and have that be the only means to cast a net of discovery, but also generate revenue. Like, if you’ve got an album coming out in two weeks on distribution that you scheduled, you can also create a direct-to-consumer campaign where your profile becomes your own store front. You can sell the digital downloads of your project before its released. You can sell vinyl and merchandise attached to that digital downloads for your super fans.

So we’ve been seeing artists using the tools generating almost 40 times more in revenue than what they’re generating on streaming services. These are artists with not even huge followings who are generating three of four grand in a weekend’s time.

Does it feel strange knowing that for a new artist to make an honest living now they have to basically abandon the resources they grew up thinking would lead them to success?

100%, man. It’s honestly molded the mind of new artists to where the concept of music direct is not even… like, the amount of calls we’ve taken with a new artist where they’re not even thinking about it. They’re like, “What do you mean I could sell my music directly? What does that mean?” Like, I come from the era of selling CD’s out the trunk. I remember back when Kendrick was K-Dot, he had this Training Day mixtape that all of us would go to the mall and sell these CDs!

I look at it [just like] anything in culture. History repeats itself, and with the fact that I’ve transitioned from being a creative to going into business — that was out of just frustration and necessity. I’m dealing with chasing payments, dealing with all the issues we’re trying to solve on the platform. It’s crazy that these artists have been molded into not understanding the options they have.

What was it about EMPIRE and Ghazi that made sense for this mission?

Just Ghazi’s voice in general, him as the CEO and founder of EMPIRE — which is a fully owned company by Ghazi. It’s not being moved by outside influence. He’s completely moving at his own pace and that’s admirable in today’s time. It’s all based on artistic intention. It’s all based on really providing artists with these chances to not only generate money off their art, but show them the way of a small business. I feel like everything Ghazi has done — remember Section.80 was one of the first albums distributed through EMPIRE — we’ve been able to see that journey. So it just made perfect sense because of his mission. He really shows by doing, and we wanted him to come and be a part of that.

EngineEars prides itself on being a community space, but I’m curious how you balance that with the natural competition aspect that comes with chasing success — especially in hip-hop.

For me, looking at it top-level — I look at it as a sport. I don’t wanna use the word conflict, but that friendly competition is about doing something and wanting to be the best at it. I tell people all the time, especially when I do workshops, what’s the point of doing something if you’re not gunning for that No. 1 spot? Competition in that light is healthy, it keeps people on their toes and keeps the bar of creativity at the highest level possible.

When it comes to the communal aspect, we don’t see it as a negative. There is space for it, [EngineEars] does mixing competitions where we have hundreds of audio engineers competing for a No. 1 spot. It provides a little bit of nudging to do something that you might not have done outside of a competition. It’s healthy all the way around, it keeps people’s sword sharpened and keeps the bar high! We live in a time where the bar is set so low. Mediocracy is just championed.

And at the same time, even if you’re not the top dog, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be able to make a living.

Absolutely! Because we’re in the age of internet, where everything is so accessible, just being able to provide that storefront and opportunity where you’re able to grow your reach [is a big deal]. Once you’ve distributed a song, if you’re seeing streams in South Africa, go use our digital ad tools to do an ad in that region! Our goal for us is just bridging the gap and providing real business solutions.

Tell me more about your thoughts on the state of rap, specifically from your end as an audio engineer-turned-CEO.

It’s been stagnant. Like apparently there wasn’t a hit rap record over the summer? I think all of that goes to this conversation we’re having right now. The bar is being set so low, and people are chasing a specific sound rather than just creating. I love what Tyler, The Creator does, I love the Clipse album, just figuring out ways to re-create yourself as an artist time and time again is gonna continue to push the bar. I feel like artists — I don’t wanna use the word insecure — but artists now have gotten [successful] so fast to where the artist development wasn’t there to understand how to intentionally play the game. But where there’s chaos there’s opportunity. It’s gonna leave space open for that artist that is different and pushing creative boundaries.

What’s EngineEars final goal? What’s your vision for the platform as it continues to expand to include all these new tools?

Technology moves so fast, so it’ll be kinda hard to pinpoint the end goal. We’re really taking it day by day simply by offering services and providing utilities to our users. We’re hyper focused on understanding the holes the industry has and how we can fill those holes using our technology. You never know where the future can go, as long we can provide this newly built eco-system and fly with the ability to scale, that’s our main focus.