Troy Carter is back on good terms with Scooter Braun, having settled a lawsuit over an eight-figure loan. Speaking at Midem in Cannes today, he also spelled out in grand terms what he's up to with Q&A.

Q&A, Carter says, is focused on plugging the gap he sees in distribution by building specific products for different artists that will help develop their careers.

"I think people treat distribution as a commodity and I think they've gotten to a place where everybody is building the same exact product," he explained. "As companies are looking at direction, it's [about] adding a unique value that's going to help artists, and building products specifically for that artist. If you are going after one size fits all [approach], I think it's going to be a race to the bottom on pricing and you might as well give it away for free. Artists won't be price sensitive if they think someone is adding value to their career." The consolidated structure of today's music business, he said, "doesn't allow long tail artists to really monetise in a way that's sustainable and can spread wide.

“No one is really focused on the music industry from an enterprise perspective, from labels, to publishers, to artists as entrepreneurs. So a lot of our focus is on building products."

Freelance journalist Cherie Hu handled the interview asking him about Braun, who sued Carter, alleging that he had defaulted on a loan of more than $10m. The lawsuit was settled in March but neither side issued a statement.

Discussing where the dispute stands today, Carter said: "Scooter and I have been friends for a long time and we had this dispute, which I think [was the result of] both of us [seeing] this thing totally differently. We had a super parallel universe on it and I think it got ugly. There were some things that both of us said that I think both of us regret.

"Over Christmas we had breakfast, squashed it and decided to hug it out. My 16-year-old daughter is the biggest Ariana fan. I figured she would take Scooter's side so I think it's best we put it behind us. He and I speak and we are back on good terms."

Carter even said he’d tip to Scooter to the boy band he heard aboard the yacht that brought him from St. Tropez to Cannes.