The Passion For Good Music

The passion for good music and accurate reproduction has led industry leaders to work together for years in the design and production of innovative acoustic solutions. In their pursuit of the joys of producing great music, however, content creators faced one problem: they weren’t receiving commensurate pay for their efforts.

With the coming of the blockchain, it appears all of that is about to change for the better. Blockchain, the technology that runs cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, could create disruptions in media-content distribution, allowing creators to receive payments for their work.

How Will the Blockchain Ensure Transparency Around Royalty Payments?

In theory, streaming services like iTunes, Apple Music, and Spotify pay artists a certain sum per play. The amount artists receive for their work is determined by a very complicated formula which measures the amount of revenue accruable to each rights holder (such as music labels, musicians, producers, etc.) based on their contribution to the development of the content.

Metadata, which helps to organize, find, and understand the music data, holds information regarding the rights holders to any musical piece. But while it does a fantastic job of holding data, the data can be altered, which may result in an artist not getting paid for their work.

The blockchain could potentially solve this extraordinarily complex and contentious revenue-sharing issue by replacing the old formula with a new procedure that ensures transparency when distributing income. Thanks to the blockchain, music enthusiasts could choose to pay for a song using digital currency such as bitcoin or a smart contract platform like ethereum.

Payments made using the ether currency, the ethereum token, are split automatically among rights holders. This is because the smart contract element of the blockchain makes it possible to determine what percentage of the proceeds goes to which collaborator. By putting content on the blockchain and entering all rights holders to that specific content, content creators make it possible for anyone to view the database.

Benefits of Blockchain for Music Fans and Artists

Asides helping to ensure transparency around royalty payments and rights management, the blockchain technology is beneficial for both fans and artists in some ways. For music lovers, it could generate benefits such as lower prices for content. On their part, music creators could see their revenues increase significantly, thanks to the technology.

The blockchain also helps make copyrights easier to impose, as people around the world could view copyright data on the ledger. Also, it helps provide evidence of ownership of music. The blockchain’s consensus mechanism, which allows users to preserve a digitally shared truth, enables content producers to distribute their work directly to end users. By so doing, it eliminates the long chain of intermediaries, which in turn reduces content cost and improve the speed with which content is delivered.