Waver: Blockchain Based Solution for Growing Digital Music Market
After fifteen years of decrease, mostly because of music industries incompetency in adapting to the digital world, the total revenue of music industry continues its steady rise since 2014. While digital market kept growing and physical market kept shrinking, 2018 became an important milestone for music industry as digital music sales passed 50% of the total revenue for the first time and streaming kept surpassing digital downloads to exceed 75% of the digital market according to IFPI 2018 Global Music Report. Other winner of the industry is indie labels which continues its growth over major labels but the biggest winner is in direct sales with a whooping 35% increase in 2018 according to MIDIA Research’s 2018 forecast. All these numbers paint an obvious bright future for digital music distribution which doesn’t seem like that it could get any better, but the team of Waver Project thinks that it could as they prepare to introduce the power of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency to digital music world.
The goal of Waver is to create a blockchain based, decentralized online music marketplace focused on direct sales. According to Waver Discord Server, project started at the beginning of February with the initiation of blockchain and presale followed by registration of the coin on CryptoBridge exchange and numerous tracking services. According to the recent announcements, the team is currently analyzing digital music platforms and close to a final design; last steps before development can reach full speed. Although expected to resemble contemporary digital music marketplaces like audiojungle -which is mentioned by the team- the full features of the platform is yet undisclosed. What’s clear is the role of blockchain and cryptocurrency. According to Waver GitHub, the project wants to employ the unique record keeping capability of blockchain technology to copyright the music registered on the platform. Although blockchain technology is more commonly associated with cryptocurrency, its primary feature is in fact the creation of unique and unalterable records which created use cases in different industries like shipping or storage wherever secure data stamping is a concern. With blockchain technology, the entire copyright process including claim, transfer and dispute resolution can be executed securely, seamlessly and cost-free. The other benefit of blockchain technology is of course the cryptocurrency Waver coin (WVC) which is going to be the payment medium on the platform. Waver believes that the universality of cryptocurrency and low transaction rates is going to help aiding the payment problem between different locations.
As stated above, Waver already released the blockchain and Waver coin is open for trade. Project features a PIVX based POS+MN blockchain with 1 minute block time and 40 million WVC maximum supply (1% premined). Block reward distribution is 10 to 90% between POS and MN. The current masternode collateral is 500 WVC which is going to gradually increase to 2500, 5000 and finally to 10000 in the following months. This is going to be followed by an increase in block reward up to 80 WVC before it starts retrieving. MN stats can be found on MNCN and MNROI. Waver coin is currently open for trade on CryptoBridge with a small marketcap, as the project is new, there is not enough supply yet to form an active market. However the presale is still active for 0.75 BTC for a masternode; team is available on Discord for inquiries.
Digital music market is continuously growing especially on direct sales front and creating opportunities for new initiatives. Waver is taking this chance by using the power of blockchain technology to improve the copyright process and solve the difficulties in international payment for the benefit of independent artists. To get a chance to catch the project at an early stage, check the project on web and meet the team and the community on Discord.
