Music has always been a leader in culture. Not only through artists (the most dynamic and charismatic creatives you can imagine), but with the sound itself, which travels fast. This was the first industry the digital revolution decimated and we now have a chance to be a first mover in reinventing ourselves with blockchain.
Let’s look at two major challenges facing the music industry:
1. Lack of transparency (in payment, tour history, royalty rates, streams per payment). Getting paid in the music business is complicated, from the way royalties work on recorded music to how much money is paid on streaming versus radio airplay, to how many tickets an artist is worth and his or her overall price per performance.
2. Artists owning their relationships with customers. In regards to sales, artists do not know who their consumers are. They have no idea who is actually buying their music and neither do their record labels. In addition, thanks to Ticketmaster, they have no real data on who is buying their tickets.
Blockchain, in theory, can help solve both of these challenges. This technology stands for something revolutionary: bringing the power back into the people’s hands, empowering artists and fans to directly transact. When the music industry starts adopting more alternative cryptocurrencies, it will empower artists and take transparency to a new level by allowing them to disintermediate the middlemen (labels, retail stores, streaming platforms and others) and become their own whole ecosystem. In addition, by applying the technical breakthroughs of these networks, we can effectively organize data about music for the first time in human history, and more importantly, reinvent the way artists/rights-holders get paid and value themselves.
Furthermore, with all of the excitement in the space, every CEO at this point has a fiduciary duty to their boards and investors to look at how their potential business model can grow on the blockchain. I honestly have been thinking about it more and more, and I love the space’s potential.
You can read the full piece here
——
Ps: Today kicks off the 10th anniversary of Social Media Week and it’s also the Tribeca Film Festival in NYC this week. Here are the music and tech panels you should know about:
Tribeca Film Festival: Blue Note Records: Beyond The Notes (Movie Screening)
Tribeca Talks: Future of Film with Alex Da Kid and the Intersection of AI & Music at SVA 3pm on Wednesday
Tribeca Talks: Master Class on Sound and Music Design for Film at SVA 4pm on Friday
Social Media Week: Panel: How Instagram Became The Music Industry’s Go-To Social Platform”Tuesday at 12:15 pm – 12:55 pm Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel – Stage 3
PPS: Finally on Friday night, I’ve been asked by my dear friend Franck to be on the host committee for a charity event at his Ping-Pong club SPiN. Taking place in the VIP room from 8 to 10pm and featuring Tequila donated by DOBEL, Super Star DJ Ana Boo and the amazing Duda Louro will be performing beautiful Brazilian songs, it should be a great night.
I’ll be there all night. Come hang out with me on FriYay night and support a great cause at the same time.
Also published on Medium.