Blockchain could cure the millennial whoop
If you think that all modern chart music sounds the same, you’ll be glad to know that it’s not because you’re getting old and losing touch. Two different studies by scientists at the University of Vienna and the Spanish National Research Council have concluded that pop music has become more similar and less complex over the last five decades.
In fact, music today is so ‘samey’ that there’s even a name for the specific note sequence used in most pop songs called ‘the millennial whoop’.
In an age where we have more options to consume content than ever and access to more technology, it’s insane that what tops the charts is so bland. But there’s some good news: here at Qravity we’re preparing a blockchain-based solution with the potential to rock the foundations of the music industry.
One of the main reasons music sounds so uniform right now is that there are only a handful of people writing it. Record labels rely heavily on producers that they deem to be ‘proven successes’. Take Steve McCutcheon. You may not have heard of him but he has dominated the UK charts for most of the last two decades, penning 23 №1 singles and 100 more top five songs for artists such as Ed Sheeran, P!nk, James Blunt, and Boyzone.
As the late legendary Frank Zappa explains in this interview, labels have become far less willing to take a risk on unproven independent songwriters and bands. New and exciting talent often never gets the opportunity to connect with an audience.
Not many artists can afford to follow their passion full time, or even raise the money to professionally produce and market an album. Which is why the top one percent of the world’s bands and solo artists now earn 77 percent of all revenue from recorded music, leaving very little in the pot for new acts. Visit any crowdfunding site and you’ll find endless pages of independent artists trying to raise money to produce their work.
If you’re one of the lucky few who find moderate success, you’ll no doubt have to distribute your work on gateway platforms like Spotify or Apple Music, which are infamous for taking a large cut of the royalties, and more recently for not compensating artists. On top of that, there are serious security issues. Metadata that accompanies the tracks contains information on who the rights holders are and who gets paid. But metadata is often incomplete, or can easily be stripped away, meaning artists often don’t get paid for their work at all.
There are also geographical restrictions such as copyright, legal impediments, and even censorship, which may prevent your work reaching certain countries, as well as the almost constant battle against piracy. In the face of all this, it’s no wonder that independent musicians struggle to find success.
The current industry status quo doesn’t work. It stifles creativity, dumbs down the taste of the general population, and ensures that most of the profits go to big labels, their middlemen and a select number of label-backed artists. Music is no longer an art, it’s a formula. This is where blockchain technology can help give the industry a desperately needed overhaul.
First, it decentralizes the industry, taking the power out of the hands of the few and giving it to the many. Qravity’s blockchain-based platform is designed to support artists throughout the entire process of making an album. It begins by connecting musicians with the professionals that they need to make it.
Using the platform, musicians and other content creators can work for stakes in a project thanks to smart contracts, which award creators shares in project ownership every time they hit a milestone. Whenever their content is purchased or rented, creators receive a portion of the payment based on their shares. Tamper-resistant and transparent, there’s no need to worry about how royalties are calculated or which third-party is gobbling up the profits.
Project founders overseeing an album’s production can use Qravity’s full suite of professional project management and communications tools. When the album is ready to launch, Qravity can help nurture direct artist-to-consumer relationships. Teams are compensated for their work through immediate micropayments directly from the consumer or distributor.
Blockchain technology enables artists to track all music they produce and how it is used. Unique ID ledgers help eliminate the possibility of torrenting music tracks digitally, meaning creators will continue to profit every time someone accesses their content. This transparent and direct-to-consumer model also potentially solves global distribution issues.
Of course blockchain technology in the music business is still in its early stages, but the business benefits for artists themselves are clear. Without record companies to pick and choose the most profitable and formulaic tunes while stripping artists of most of the profits, there is an opportunity for growth in terms of quality and diversity. The millenial whoop, and its exasperating perpetuation, could become a thing of the past. Artists will be able to deal directly with consumers and reap their just rewards. And that’s a win-win situation for music lovers the world over.
To find out more about Qravity, visit our website, read our white paper, or join the discussion in our Telegram group.
