Too Lost regularly positions itself as a technology-led music distribution company.

But there is an interesting relationship sitting underneath its distribution infrastructure: AudioSalad.

A Too Lost-branded AudioSalad portal is publicly accessible at toolost.audiosalad.com, with the page explicitly stating that it is “Powered by AudioSalad.”

So what exactly is the relationship?

Too Lost uses AudioSalad for distribution infrastructure

According to Ari’s Take, Too Lost distributes directly to most of the approximately 450 outlets it supports, but uses AudioSalad for some smaller DSPs, particularly to handle metadata and infrastructure.

That is an important distinction.

It does not appear that Too Lost is simply a complete AudioSalad white-label distributor.

But equally, Too Lost does not appear to have built every distribution pipe itself.

Instead, the company seems to operate a hybrid model: direct relationships and proprietary technology for parts of its distribution network, while AudioSalad provides infrastructure elsewhere.

What does AudioSalad actually do?

AudioSalad is essentially infrastructure for music companies.

It provides technology that allows labels, distributors and rights holders to manage catalogues, metadata and delivery to streaming platforms.

Rather than every distributor building hundreds of integrations from scratch, companies can use infrastructure providers such as AudioSalad to handle parts of the process.

There is nothing particularly unusual about this.

The interesting part is what it says about where Too Lost’s competitive advantage really sits.

Is Too Lost really a technology company?

Too Lost CEO Gregory Hirschhorn has previously argued that music distribution is fundamentally a technology business.

Interestingly, in the same discussion he criticised the wider industry trend where distributors use companies such as FUGA or AudioSalad for their distribution pipes and then concentrate on signing artists and doing deals.

Yet Too Lost itself uses AudioSalad for at least part of its infrastructure.

That doesn’t mean Too Lost has no technology.

Clearly it does.

But it suggests that its real advantage may increasingly lie somewhere else.

Too Lost has become aggressive in signing artists, labels and catalogues, providing advances and building artist-service relationships.

In that sense, it arguably looks increasingly like an A&R and dealmaking company supported by technology rather than a pure infrastructure technology company.

The pipes aren’t necessarily the moat

Ultimately, using AudioSalad might actually be a perfectly sensible decision.

Why spend engineering resources building integrations with every small DSP when established infrastructure already exists?

But it raises an interesting question about modern music distributors.

Is the value in building the pipes?

Or is the value in acquiring and retaining the artists flowing through them?

In Too Lost’s case, its relationship with AudioSalad suggests the answer may increasingly be the latter.

Too Lost may describe itself as a technology company.

But perhaps its strongest technology is not the distribution pipe itself.

Perhaps the real Too Lost machine is the one finding artists, offering capital and signing deals.

And that’s starting to look a lot more like modern A&R.