The music industry is evolving fast. The rise of streaming services has meant that artists can now reach more people than ever before, but it’s also created lots of problems. The biggest? The revenue generated by streaming is low, and it’s shrinking every year. In many cases, artists are still being paid less than in previous years. That’s because the infrastructure for streaming music is built on top of an old model: a centralised system where all the power is held by a few large companies that control how money flows through the system. That means there are lots of places where things can go wrong—and often do—causing artists to lose money and get ripped off by middlemen.
This isn’t just bad news for musicians; it’s bad news for fans too. It means less money goes into creating new music, which means fewer albums being released each year. And while there have been many changes, including the move from physical to digital media, one thing that hasn’t changed is the way musicians are compensated for their work. That’s where blockchain comes in.
Blockchain-based music streaming services
Blockchain is a distributed ledger technology, which allows users to access an encrypted database without having to trust any central authority or third party. This means that no one person or entity can control what information is added to the blockchain—it’s decentralised and accessible to anyone who wants to use it.Blockchain can be used as an intermediary between artists and fans, cutting out middlemen like record labels and streaming services while making it easier than ever before for consumers to support their favorite artists by purchasing directly from them. In light of that, we’ve assembled a list of some of the leading blockchain innovative companies that are already making waves in this emerging industry.
Digimarc
Digimarc helps artists and other intellectual property holders license their work by integrating blockchain into its technology. Digimarc Barcode is a music-recognition technology that connects to metadata and provides information about where the song came from and how often it was played. Digital watermarking technology works with most music files and gives rights holders a more detailed view of their assets.
MediaChain
MediaChain, acquired by Spotify in 2017, is a peer-to-peer database that lets users share information across different applications and organisations. It issues unique identifiers for each piece of information, ensuring that the data is organised in an open-source fashion. The company also works with artists to ensure they are paid fairly by issuing smart contracts stipulating royalty percentages without confusing third parties or contingencies.
Royal
Royal is a platform where listeners can purchase a percentage of a song’s royalties directly from an artist. Once an artist decides how many royalties to sell, Royal users can buy these rights as NFTs. Royal enables transactions with a credit card or cryptocurrency and creates wallets for those who do not already have them.
Mycelia
Mycelia is a collective of artists, musicians, and music lovers looking to empower creatives in the music industry. Each song on the company’s Creative Passport contains information about who contributed to it and how they are compensated, so all contributors are treated fairly.
Zora
Zora is a protocol for creators to sell their work as tokens. Unlike an ordinary NFT marketplace, where copies of an original are sold over and over, Zora offers a model in which an original NFT is accessible to anyone and sold repeatedly. Artists will continue to earn a portion of the sale price every time their NFT is sold, so they’re compensated for their work even after it has been released into circulation.Typically, blockchain technology is nascent, but explosive area of tech and is on track to revolutionise the way business is conducted, which is why it’s so important that innovators in the music industry utilise this technology. This will ultimately lead to reduced costs while increasing security and transparency in the way music rights are managed within the industry.
