Label Pomitni: Mission, Values, and Positioning in the Music Market

With the onset of the full-scale invasion, the company underwent numerous changes. Firstly, the market changed: there were no concerts or advertising campaigns. Many artists ended our collaboration by mutual agreement, as some remained abroad, others chose to go their own way, and some volunteered. The team fell apart, and for me, it was a real test. I then became convinced that in order to scale, it was crucial to change the business model. If previously the collaboration model revolved around the artist, now it evolved into a team that provides services to artists. The better the service, the more artists we attract. This became the key change in the entire business model.

Currently, Pomitni has more than fifty artists (as of the end of 2025, the label collaborated with 147 artists in terms of distribution). Our mission is to provide artists with maximum value to monetize their creativity and help them enter international markets. We want Ukrainian music to be heard all over the world, not just locally. In other words, we have transitioned to a service-based business.

Pomitni is a service business that offers all services available in the music market. Of course, distribution is the core of our cooperation. In addition, we have opened a publishing direction, as it is important for authors and artists to collect royalties. We also provide PR, SMM, booking services, and collaboration with brands.

Pomitni is open to different musical genres. The primary focus is on the urban cluster: hip-hop, pop, and indie music. However, we are also willing to collaborate with electronic music performers if they are interested in our services. Naturally, we categorize artists by genres. For instance, we currently do not venture into rock, as we likely cannot add value there due to our lack of experience; our ecosystem currently lacks services that would be of interest to rock performers.

Pomitni is also a client to some extent since we work with other companies and distribute music. However, the association of music companies and market initiatives is outside the scope of Pomitni. We work not only with artists but also on the development of the industry. Initially, we needed artists—we searched for them and helped them grow. But to scale them, we need to systematize the industry by collaborating with other labels within the country and various international partners from outside. Everyone benefits from this: the entire market grows, Ukrainian artists from different labels receive value, and listeners enjoy Ukrainian music.

When you work in a small market—your opportunities are limited. My idea is to turn the label into a system with business processes, a service, and transparency (so that the artist has access to dashboards, reports, etc.). I understand that without a broader system, association, communication with the state, and international partners, we will remain just a local market. Even if my label becomes the largest in Ukraine, without all of the aforementioned, my voice will be small. This involves moving beyond the system and establishing a supersystem.

Iryna Horova on the Impact of Education at KMBS

The internal motivation to do more than just make money began with my studies at KMBS. You “download” something into your head, and you realize: great, I'm here now, but what’s next? You want to give back, create, research. I enjoy this.

Education at KMBS was a catalyst for searching for a new business model for collaborating with artists. Before the war, we were a group of companies working with four artists in whom we invested. During a strategic session in 2021, we started unpacking and transferring what we had learned at KMBS during the Presidents’ MBA program. We realized that it was strategically incorrect to work with only four artists if we wanted to build a sustainable business model. So, overall, after the training, I realized that our team was not working in the right way and that we needed to change our direction and approach.

During the program, I received “zip files” of understanding that often unpack over months. For me, KMBS is always warm memories of great communication with classmates. There is so much valuable knowledge and advice that I immediately want to share and apply them in the company.

Partnership with "Avrora": Collaboration Based on Common Values

Our collaboration with the Avrora multi-market chain is an example of creating real value: a large business recognized a music label not as an object with which to work short-term within advertising or a one-time service but as a subject with which to create a long-term partnership.

When we met to discuss our cooperation more broadly, I pointed out what the market lacks: grants, music camps, tools for artist development, projects that would bring them together in one space so they could work together.

We worked out development steps and created a separate company with a creative name "Na Yi Osnovi" (On Its Basis). The first product "Na Yi Osnovi" is the Avrora radio, where only licensed Ukrainian music plays in the 1700 stores of the Avrora chain, and the company officially pays royalties. The money from advertisers is fully reinvested into grants and other projects "Na Yi Osnovi."

Together, we created music camps. This is an event where artists, musicians, and sound producers go away for a week to a specific location to engage exclusively in music creation. Collaborations, acquaintances are formed there, and a community is built. The platform develops this community: it invites participants to events, conducts listening sessions for tracks created within various projects "Na Yi Osnovi." In terms of results, about 85-90% of the music created at these camps has already been released on streaming platforms.

Another format of the platform includes music intensives—small sessions similar to music camps but held in Kyiv. The essence is for artists, sound producers, and mentors to create music over several days. In two days, approximately five great Ukrainian tracks are produced in this way.

I dream of having those who can strengthen Ukrainian music and share their experience join us. Our experience can be adapted worldwide—we have talented creators, ideas, music, producers who can share this with international partners.

We found common values with Avrora. We want music to be heard, to have an abundance of it, to be paid for. And they, through their example and contribution, encourage other companies to contribute to the music industry. Our industry currently lacks credit tools, patronage programs; it is difficult to obtain grants (especially due to bureaucratic issues). Almost always, producers or managers invest in their artists. However, if there were external funding for the industry, we would grow very quickly. Thus, such precedent collaborations are crucial.

Creating the Ukrainian Association of Music Companies SPILNA

I dreamed of creating an association of music companies to unite the market. Historically, it was formed around the artist—the team expanded, and when recruiting more artists, a production center was created. This was not a very farsighted model. Now this is changing.

Previously, there was no need to unite: the artist was already organizing concerts and growing. There was no need to work with other institutions.

But the war demonstrated: if you're alone—you can be destroyed; you are not a player in the market. Therefore, we began to seek ways to unite. I invited many labels to KMBS, where Alexander Savruk, the school's dean, lectured on unity, values, and common paths. Later, I invited the association of Nika Viknyansky, founder of Termopal, a graduate of Presidents’ MBA, and they shared their story of association creation. Thanks to such iterations, our labels understood that partnership could bring additional value.

Thus, the Ukrainian Association of Music Companies SPILNA was formed. We went through many challenges, were on the verge of collapse, but now we have reached a level of understanding.

Researching the Music Market

In 2023, we rethought and restructured the business. We adopted a new name—Pomitni. We understood where we would move, what our strategy is, and why and how we are changing the business.

If you're changing the model, signing artists, you need to know how many artists exist, what the market capacity is, and where listeners can find Ukrainian music. There was no data at that time, and this was a general problem.

So, in 2023 we researched the audience for the first time to understand what changed during this period. Have people started to listen to more Ukrainian music? Where and how does this happen? Are they willing to pay for content? After all, the financial revenue of artists from streaming platforms directly depends on the number of people subscribed to these services in a specific region. For instance, if only 2% of the population is subscribed to a platform, and the rest use unofficial or free versions, it’s practically pointless to invest in the market.

The research results showed that YouTube remains the most popular streaming platform, followed by Spotify, then Apple Music and other services. Meanwhile, we found that a significant number of people listen to pirated, unlicensed music on Telegram.

Moreover, some artists do not realize that by posting their music for free, they complicate their path to millions of potential listeners on paid services. This leads to a situation where transitioning to paid platforms makes little sense.

In 2025, we conducted broader research.

“MUSIC HAS POWER”—this research was initiated by the Pomitni music label and implemented together with partners: Dive and Discovery Research Agency, Ruban Litvinova Social Impact Advisory, the Ukrainian Institute of the Future, NUAM, Concert.ua, and the Ukrainian National Office of Intellectual Property and Innovations (UKRNOIV/IР office), and the Music Association SPILNA.

Together, we aimed to research the Ukrainian listener: what has changed, what remains the same; analyze the figures: how many artists, listeners, labels, and releases there are; and study the influence—does Ukrainian music affect the opinion of society. Because the value of our industry lies in its influence. When you listen to an artist singing in Ukrainian on repeat, you start to take pride in Ukrainian artists and sing along in Ukrainian. Perhaps, when you're abroad, it starts to pull you back home. Various factors encourage people to take pride in being Ukrainian.

It is crucial to have a strong partner—the Ukrainian Institute of the Future. They methodologically gathered all information from partners, analyzed data, and compiled it into a comprehensible document—research.

Previously, when I asked, “How many of us are there?” I realized that I couldn’t find this data anywhere. During this time, I was following NUAM. I thought it was an entire analytical company that started tracking the music market. It turned out the founder independently analyzes Ukrainian music: listens to it, sorts it, analyzes genres, stores links. When he announced that he ran out of money for this project, we immediately started thinking about how to address this issue. We spoke and began funding the project. Later, we decided to translate this into a systematic IT solution. Currently, we are working on a platform similar to Chartmetric, but with a complete catalog of Ukrainian artists.

In particular, over the course of our collaboration, we established that there are 15,837 artists in Ukraine as of October 2025. We have 217 creative associations that have released more than three artists. Large labels or creative unions exist, such as Best Music, Pomitni, Enko, LLC “SUPER SYMETRY,” COMP MUSIC, MAМА MUSIC.

On average, approximately 6,300 releases occur monthly. This is a substantial amount of product. In particular, more than 67 thousand tracks were released in 2025.

The number of published tracks is constantly increasing. Out of those 15 thousand artists, only 8 released at least one track in 2025. This means that some of them are on pause or have closed, moved to other professions, or haven't had time yet. However, the number of active artists is very high—this represents a significant capacity in the market.

An interesting statistic is that 14 artists have average monthly listens on Spotify exceeding one million. About 30 artists between 500 thousand to one million listens. This group consists of very popular artists. More than a million listens predominantly come from electronic music. What is good, yet concerning is around 12 thousand artists have less than a thousand listens. Who can fall into this category? Those who just started—there can be first releases in 8 thousand releases that haven't collected listens yet. Perhaps those who launched and ceased operations, or those lacking funds for music promotion.

The research indicated the market capacity. If there were financial investments into the industry, more production centers or labels investing in music, within those 12 thousand, talented youth could be found and developed.

Besides the numbers, it was important for me to investigate the impact of Ukrainian music on listeners. We were interested in asking people what Ukrainian music means to them, especially now, after the full-scale invasion.

For this, we collaborated with Ruban Litvinova Social Impact Advisory. The survey results astonished me. Here are some of the responses: “I can’t imagine my life without listening to Ukrainian songs, without watching Ukrainian videos. I believe Ukrainian music is multifaceted and diverse, and it should be spoken about and recognized in every corner of the world.”

“When I listen to Ukrainian music, I feel pride in my nation and my singing language.”

So, we create an influence that is difficult to quantify, but we see that its impact on national pride is enormous. It also serves as emotional support.

We were joined by the Ukrainian National Office of Intellectual Property—a state organization that deals with copyright. We collaborated with them on analyzing legislative changes and they provided statistical data on violations. Together, we created a project that outlines the rules: how to pay correctly, where to pay, and what violations exist.

Concert.ua—the largest ticket operator in Ukraine. They provided data on concert attendance. After this, we conducted an analysis and found that the number of visits to concerts featuring Ukrainian artists has doubled. This is very important because we currently see the Sports Palace as a venue that can host multiple events, allowing for several concerts in a row. Perhaps the war has prompted the creation of local Ukrainian products: brands, clothing, music. Now, we are witnessing a bloom of everything Ukrainian.

The most important thing is not just to conduct research, but to build a further strategy: to unite with state institutions, businesses, and other industries to collectively create true value for people and the country.

The research was a significant step in understanding modern Ukrainian music, its audience, and their habits.

Now, if I approach the Minister of Culture and say, "Our industry needs grant support," I can substantiate my position with statistical data. This represents an entirely different approach and communication format. We are becoming partners, not just those who plead for help. This is immensely important in all negotiations, communications, and collaborations. You wish to give something back and end up receiving even more.