5 Startups proving pretty cool applications of blockchain in media, tech & entertainment in 2018
01 Ujo
Led by Capetonian Simon de la Rouviere, Ujo Music is — in collaboration with New York-based ConsenSys —building music platform that allows artists to self-license their work using Ethereum.
[Ujo] is a platform that uses the ethereum blockchain as the substrate for innovation by empowering artists, digitizing their music rights and metadata, sharing this information in an open environment, thus enabling new applications, products, and services to license their catalogs and pay artists directly with minimal friction.
Having already collaborated with musicians like Imogen Heap and RAC, Ujo is yet another example of the potential of our beloved decentralized technology to cut out proverbial middle men for the benefit of those putting in the real work.
* Recommended reading:
02 PopChest
PopChest, aka ‘YouTube on the Blockchain’ is an ad-free online media distribution platform that allows content creators to get paid for video views directly, in real-time.
For engaged viewers, PopChest promises “the smoothest possible video-on-demand experience with no signups, no subscriptions, and no commitment.”
* Recommended reading:
03 ascribe*
Built for artists and creators, ascribe uses a blockchain-based platform to empower creatives with unbreakable links between them and their work.
ascribe is a service that empowers creators to truly own, securely share and track the history of a digital work. We do this by giving creators the tools to lock in authorship, set the intent and gain visibility into where their work spreads. By doing this, creators can be recognized while giving buyers an easier way to discover and reward them.
* Recommended reading:
*UPDATE
I was sorry to hear about ascribe shutting down owing to infrastructure constraints in August of 2018. The codebase behind their awesome contribution to helping creatives protect their data is now fully open source, and artists are able to run their own service.
04 Screener Copy
Powered by Custos Media Technologies (where I’m considered to be part of the team — in the interests of full disclosure 😘 ), Screener Copy is a secure video-on-demand (VOD) platform that uses a combination of —
- patented blockchain-based tracking technology,
- imperceptible, forensic watermarking, and
- Amazon Web Services cloud storage infrastructure
— to protect media owners and distributors from online piracy.
* Recommended reading:
05 SingularDTV
SingularDTV aims to empower artists with applications to manage and create projects right through from development to distribution.
Also having partnered with venture production studio ConsenSys, and also building a decentralized entertainment on Ethereum, SingularDTV is “innovating across all facets of the entertainment industry, from how we fund our projects to how we share them with the world.”
* Recommended reading:
Let me know who I’ve missed in the comments below?
