Macklemore & Ryan Lewis give musicians more control

Musicians Macklemore & Ryan Lewis are backing a new platform that will give up-and-coming artists more "control".

Rapper Macklemore and producer Ryan are behind album The Heist, which produced hit singles like Thrift Shop and Same Love. Now they're putting their experience to good use by lending their support to an initiative by web development platform Wix called Wix Music 2.0. They are also introducing a campaign on YouTube entitled #OpeningAct, which will generate over 100 million views for Wix Music users' videos.

Macklemore hopes this new venture will help change the face of the industry for fresh talent. "Wix Music allows musicians to grow their business while staying true to the art they create," he said in a statement. "What made their platform so dope to me was seeing an artist in control. The internet is crucial for today's artists and Wix Music is a great tool to let them leverage it to the fullest degree. You can create your own website, sell your music, engage your fans, sell merchandise and all from one location while staying true to yourself."

Wix Music is commission free, allowing artists to independently introduce, share, sell and distribute their music directly from their Wix websites. To drum up excitement, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis are creating a series of custom videos that will help mentor and guide Wix Music users.

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis announced their second album in January (15) and have already released tracks Growing Up (Sloane's Song), featuring Ed Sheeran, and Downtown. But it could be some time before fans can snap up the new record.

"We're working on a follow up, and we take forever, so I can't say how long it will take but we are in the studio daily, trying out new stuff," Ryan previously told MTV News.