What will it takes to transform the music streaming industry? Blockchain could be the best answer.
A real danger for music creator is that the market has already been monopolized by a few names. Last year, Spotify has done $5 billion in sales, compensate the artist half what Amazon and Apple does, then go back to make the hurting artists slam to Apple.
The monopoly at a glance
There is no other moment in history we see that many devices on people hands that help them connect with the outside world, and music, of course, has become an even more important part of their lives. The music industry as a whole saw a consecutive decline until 2016, streaming platforms have completely taken the business of music to the new high.
While Spotify made 5 billion in sales, the $19bn industry accounts for 20% of Google’s aggregate sales. As such its monopoly with the Universal Music Group alone having 31% of the pie. Frankly speaking, there are monopolies in any corners of this fantasy commerce.
A few tigers in the same forest dilemma
We can see giants are attacking each other. Spotify is fighting with Amazon on the US court while slamming Apple music in another battlefield.
The biggest impact of the current monopoly is that the artist is getting thicker cuts from their work. Most of the sales will go to a handful of record companies and streaming platforms. Connectivity is the root of this problem, independent music creators don’t have the reach to the audience and vice versa, the audience has to rely on the gatekeeper like Spotify and Apple Music.
The way blockchain empowers innovation
Take 3 examples for the movement for giving a fair share to the music creator. Ujo is automating royalty payments to help artists get paid better. Musicoin is creating a better revenue share for the artist using blockchain technology. Choon is a promising platform allows the user to pay in cryptocurrency.
At the most basic level, the distributed ledger and smart contracts built with blockchain technology will help the artist make more out of their creation, and the public to better support the independent in music.
A growing numbers of project use blockchain as the backbone for their business model. Not only making a futuristic look for the brand, the technology, in fact, could make the business model much more transparent and direct. Direct connectivity would never exist, blockchain perhaps helps the artist find their holy grails.
