Creative industries, such as the music and film industries, have long been criticized for unfair payment practices. This has led to a decrease in the number of people who work within these sectors.
The “blockchain” is a technological breakthrough brought about in response to the 2008 financial crisis. Much has been written about it, but essentially the blockchain is a decentralized network of computers that keep and share transactions without any central control. As a result, creative industries could use it to track and calculate the value of their work more accurately.
Blockchain would make all transactions traceable from start to finish, allowing for an accurate calculation of how much money each person should receive per project or job.
Advantages of using blockchain in the creative industries
Blockchain is a distributed database that allows for secure, transparent, and tamper-proof transactions. It works by recording transactions in a “chain” of blocks, each of which is linked to the previous block. This makes it difficult to tamper with or change past transactions, as doing so would require changing all subsequent blocks.
The benefits of blockchain to those who implement it include:
Copyright protection
One of the most significant advantages that blockchain offers is its ability to provide secure copyright protection. Because of how blockchain operates, documenting ownership of creative works on a blockchain is easy and fast. All transactions are recorded on an open ledger, making it publically accessible but not easily hackable.
In addition, the more records are added to the file, the more difficult it becomes for anyone to change those records without detection. This makes plagiarism extremely difficult, as all changes will be visible to everyone accessing the ledger. Furthermore, because every transaction on a blockchain is time-stamped, proving originality also becomes much easier.
Royalties
Another advantage that blockchain can bring to the creative industries is making more secure royalty payments. The blockchain can also be used as a ledger for tracking royalties, making it possible for more accurate records of who owns what.
If more artists began managing copyrights and keeping track of ownership themselves through blockchain technology, this would give them greater power over how they distribute the revenue they generate.
It would also allow an artist to know exactly how much money they are owed at all times instead of having to wait until some other party reports royalties that should have been paid out months before.
Fraud reduction
Finally, blockchain can help with reducing fraudulent or misleading transactions in creative works. For example, last year, hundreds of bot-generated Twitter accounts began tweeting quotes from famous thinkers and philosophers, attributing them to various people when they were all unverified, unauthenticated quotes.
You could use blockchain to change this by limiting the number of times that a quote can be quoted or shared once it has been referenced for the first time. This would remove the incentive that spammers have for fake tweets and allow people to verify whether quotes are accurate or not before sharing them.
Potential disadvantages
Since blockchain technology is still in its infancy, there can be downsides. For example, one major disadvantage is bloat; Because every node on a blockchain must download a full copy of it, blockchain is very slow and inefficient.
This means that if the ledger is too big, transactions will take hours to clear instead of minutes. Yet with enough time and investment in blockchain technology, these disadvantages can be reduced or eliminated.
Why would creatives care about this?
One crucial question is whether creative professionals want to adopt blockchain technology into their platforms. The answer is yes, for the following reasons:
- Any transaction on a blockchain can be traced back to its origins by checking the public ledger, a payment could be verified as accurate and prove ownership of a work or idea without relying on contracts signed with private companies
- Blockchain offers better security and transparency, therefore more people will be willing to use it for their creative pursuits
- More users will allow blockchain to grow and advance over time, meaning lower transaction fees in the future
Using blockchain in creative ways
DEIP uses blockchain technology to revolutionize the music industry and other creative sectors. We built a digital marketplace that allows musicians and songwriters to share a percentage of a song’s royalties for royalty-based financing.
By cutting out intermediaries, DEIP will enable creators to receive full value from their work. This is just one example of how blockchain can change the creative industry landscape.
For example, on Arts, you can use blockchain to manage the “blockchain air gap” between the blockchain listing and the physical artwork. You can do this by creating a marketplace for user-owned digital goods, including collectibles, digital art, and other assets backed by a blockchain.
This way, artists can more easily protect their copyright and receive payments for their work, and consumers can be assured that the products they are purchasing are authentic.
Another company taking advantage of blockchain’s benefits to offer the creative industries is Kodak. In January of 2022, they announced the launch of KodakCoin, a cryptocurrency used to pay for and track digital rights management transactions.
The idea behind the token is to allow photographers and content creators to receive payments more quickly and easily and provide a secure system for copyright protection.
A further example is Musicoin. This company developed a system that allows musicians to sell their music directly to fans without the need for a third-party distributor.
Fans can then use Musicoin tokens to pay for their music, and musicians receive 100% of the proceeds. This system eliminates many intermediaries that usually cut the profits and allows for a more direct relationship between musicians and their fans.
Conclusion
Blockchain is a technology that can revolutionize how we interact with the digital world. It’s already being used in various industries, and there’s no reason why the creative sector can’t also benefit from its capabilities.
The DEIP platform can be of great benefit to the creative industries. By providing a secure and transparent system for exchanging ideas and payments, DEIP helps artists and content creators connect with new audiences and receive fair compensation for their work!
