From Artists to Fans, How Algorand Empowers Music With Blockchain
Since the start of the 21st century, the way people consume music has changed significantly. People would listen to CDs or digital downloads, but over time subscription streaming services began to dominate the industry. Unfortunately for artists, streaming platforms often pay out less than 10 percent of the royalties back to the artist. For example, they need 314 streams on Spotify to make a single dollar.
Today’s music industry has become filled with complicated contracts that often result in artists not maintaining ownership of their own music. Blockchain technology allows fans to buy and sometimes even co-own an artist’s work, while also supporting the artist by buying it from them directly, instead of through a service that takes a significant portion of the profit.
Here are some of the most innovative projects in the music space on Algorand:
1. Dequency
Dequency is a decentralized licensing marketplace built on Algorand. Artists can post their music or art on Dequency for creators to use on their visual projects, and set their own licensing fees. From there, it’s as simple as creators minting a sync license, which allows them to legally use the artists’ music. The artist receives payment immediately. Dequency allows artists to take control of how much other creators have to pay to use their music, and also provides a simple, efficient way for creators to get access to licensed music.
2. Opulous
Opulous is a peer-to-peer platform on Algorand that is designed to allow artists to gain access to capital/loans without having to go through traditional financial institutions. Artists often struggle with getting loans from traditional institutions because most banks don’t see music as an asset of particular value. However, musical assets are one of the fastest growing asset classes on Wall Street. With music NFTs, called MFTs by Opulous, users can invest in an artist song, EP, or album. These MFTs generate royalties over time, and also appreciate in value if the artist becomes more successful. Users can help artists grow, and profit from it at the same time, and not to mention listen to the music too.
3. Limewire
Limewire, previously a peer-to-peer music sharing platform, announced in March it would launch an NFT marketplace on Algorand. It signed a deal with a major label, Universal Music Group, which allows imprint labels featuring popular artists including Travis Barker, Soulja Boy, and Ceréna, to have the option to release NFTs on the platform. The platform’s main focus is NFT assets, which can include music, art, and collectibles.
4. Napster
A once prominent name in the music industry, Napster is preparing for its Web3 transformation. Algorand acquired Napster on May 10, 2022. The former peer-to-peer music sharing app is now building a decentralized music ecosystem. Artists and fans alike will get incentives for participating in the space, making a self-sustaining music ecosystem. Napster’s goal is to facilitate increased interaction between artists and fans, while also bridging web3 into the music space, boosting the number of daily users on the Algorand blockchain. Download the Napster Litepaper V1
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