Respect Metaverse — Changing the world, starting with changing streaming media.
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) reports that global music streaming revenues increased by 22.9% to $11.4 billion in 2019 and another 19.9% to $13.4 billion in 2020. Digital music streaming services have disrupted the traditional recording industry in the United States, and digital singles and albums are declining.
Still, the rapid growth of subscription payment services has created an alternative model for sustainable profitability within the mature copyright regime and payment environment in the US music industry. However, the traditional benefit distribution model, in which the revenue chain after creating musical works is excessively long, and there are many intermediaries, has remained unchanged, with artists’ earnings remaining low.
Apple Music told artists it pays a penny per stream, according to a Wall Street Journal report from April 2021. In comparison, Spotify pays an average of about one-third to a one-half penny per stream.
However, artists do not receive royalties directly; instead, it must go through multiple intermediaries such as record labels, music publishers, and agencies, who in turn pay the creators under previously signed recording, publishing, and releasing agreements, resulting in them receiving only a tiny portion of the revenue. Apple Music said that 52% of revenue generated by their streaming service goes to record labels, whereas Spotify offers 50% to 53%. Citigroup’s media expert Jason Bazinet has observed that just about 10% of revenue goes to artists.
The major music platforms prioritized the popular music from top singers who will have more marketing resources and exposure because online music platforms rely on singers to retain a colossal fan base to attract fans and loyal users. However, it’s challenging for singers with a small fan base and low listening rate to be recommended on digital music platforms. Long Tail singers who cannot attract more users to the platform will find it challenging to advertise themselves and generate revenue through streaming media. As a result, many talented artists with excellent works who are not yet famous lack exposure, limiting their creativity and personal development.
The Dilemma of Artists
The music revenue chain is excessively long, with too many intermediaries such as record labels, publishers, copyright organizations, brokerage firms, and media platforms.
The distribution of music royalties is not transparent, and artists lack bargaining power before becoming famous.
Revenue agreements that provide one-time revenue with no subsequent shares; long return periods, delayed payouts, and high maintenance costs.
In the early stages of their careers, artists lack the financial resources and platforms to publish and promote their work.
Gaining exposure and catching fans’ attention on mainstream media platforms is impossible when there are few fans.
Respect Metaverse
Respect Metaverse is an ecological project based on smart contracts, NFT, IPFS distributed storage, and other blockchain technologies to change how benefits are distributed and how streaming media content is disseminated.
Respect Metaverse aims to build a Metaverse ecosystem that includes audio, video, games, digital e-commerce, and other applications. The core is to change the long chain of benefit distribution into an efficient peer-to-peer manner by NFTification of audio copyrights, game props, video copyrights, etc.
And recording the holder and creator relationship on the blockchain. It fully exploits blockchain’s decentralized and trustworthy features, reducing creation work copyright transaction costs, facilitating their integration into the NFT secondary market, increasing their collection value, and maximizing artistic innovation incentives by reconstructing the original benefit distribution relationship.
