Earlier this month, Arts At MIT and TapTape, a new MIT-based music start-up kicked off their MIT Hip Hop Speaker Series and Young Guru served as the guest lecturer. The prized engineer and producer is most known for his work with stars like Jay Z and Kanye West. For nearly two hours, he spoke to a crowd of students, faculty, and media about various topics, ranging from his upbringing in Virginia to his start in music to the future of technology.

A significant portion of his lecture was his thoughts on there needing to be some type of micro-payment system for creatives. In terms of music, he felt that artists should have complete control of how their music is distributed as opposed to the control being in the hands of streaming companies such as Spotify, which are not in the best interest of the artist. Using Pharell’s Billboard charting single “Happy” as an example, a song that got streamed over tens of millions of times but paid out less than $3,000, he discussed how the current systems that are in place don’t accurately reflect the value and worth of an artist’s work.

You can listen to Guru talk about this and more below.

The post Young Guru Speaks On Music Micro-Payment System & More At MIT appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.