There is huge money in the world of show business. But only a small part of it end up in the hands of the ones who are really producing the content, who sign, dance, make movies or music. The reason for that is that this sphere has too many middle-men. A new song is losing the biggest part of the author’s earnings on the way from the performer to the listener. It is not good of course. But now this problem can be solved. There are also pioneers in the musical industry managed to minimize the whole chain of spongers with the assistance of the distributed register.

 

How it all began

Technological revolutions in the musical world come one after another. In the late 90s P2P technology and Napster network has dramatically changed it. BitTorrent has later changed a bit the design of the industry. Now everyone is waiting for a new dramatic change coming with assistance of blockchain.

Let us remind you what is P2P. P2P (peer-to-peer) is an application with a decentralized distributed architecture. Often it is being called a peer-to-peer application because all peers have the same privileges or are in the same range. The application distributes tasks between equal peers.

The concept of the Napster file-sharing system was born in 1999. Internet users were able to create groups, search engines and file systems due to P2P technology.

Interesting fact is that people started to talk about P2P in 2016 only due to bitcoin raised attention to the technology of the distributed register. And in the meanwhile all fans of free content have used the P2P technology ages ago since the project BitTorrent was launched.

Unlike regular sites enabling you to download something entirely, BitTorrent files are transmitted in parts. When a user, in other words, a torrent client, downloads parts of the file, he simultaneously transfers them to other torrent clients. Therefore, it became possible to quickly upload large files such as movies, serials, music albums.

Unfortunately, this led to massive illegal distribution of content. But now P2P can help the music industry.

 

Blockchain is coming to the rescue

Let’s take a look, how the distributed register may solve issues of the show business.

A huge encyclopedia

Blockchain can be used as a database where all musical tracks, conditions of content usage and rights holders contacts might be stored.

Cashbox

Such platforms also help solve another big issue of the musical industry related to the copyright royalties. A decentralized technology allows to exclude all intermediaries from the chain as well as increase transactions speed for low commissions in case rewards are paid in a cryptocurrency.

Let’s a take a look for instance on the PeerTracks startup. It used MUSE blockchain specially created for musicians. The system reminds on shares trade. Its users can easily track their incomes and royalties. As it is being announced by the startup founders musicians can receive up to 90% from sales. Now these are 15% only.

Philanthropists and investors

Performers can go look for additional financing sources for their projects with assistance of the advanced technology. And this is another feature important for the industry. Of course the level of trust from investors will increase, as they can trace that their money go directly to the recipient. In addition, there is now the opportunity to support your favorite musician or band using tokens. Both sides remain the winners. Musicians can get a financial opportunity to work on new material, and investors can be sure they will share royalties in case of a success.

PeerTracks releases tokens in the limited edition for every performer or musician independently. Musicians can distribute these tokens among their fans in response to their financial support. Token price entirely depends on the popularity of its owner. The more famous an artist is, the higher the demand and the more expensive are the tokens by themselves.

The opportunities created by blockchain do not stop to catch the imagination of artists and inspire them for new and sometimes unexpected ideas.

In April 2018, the Russian TV hostess and singer Olga Buzova announced the release of her own cryptocurrency she called Buzcoin. It is assumed that the new online site will combine the functions of the communication service for online dating and a marketplace.

Earlier, at the end of 2017, Russian rapper Basta announced the release of his cryptocurrency. Tokens holders of the Ticket Coin project can buy tickets for concerts with a big discount, purchase exclusive goods and get access to special Ticket Coin zones at concerts anywhere in the world.

In 2016, a very interesting and attractive business model for musicians appeared in the form of the SingularDTV platform, which works on the Ethereum protocol. The project offers artists great opportunities: tools and programs, through which you can not only create works, but also sell products. The main goal is to establish direct contact in the chain “artist - producer - consumer”.

Counter piracy operations

Blockchain is also able to solve a such important issue of the entertainment industry as piracy. In just one year the music industry has lost about $ 12.5 billion due to the piracy. There are already several technological solutions that can cope with this difficult task.

Let’s take a look for instance at the project StopTheFakes.io. A system has been created based on this fully automated project that allows the right holder to "hire" as many consumers as possible anywhere in the world to search for illegally distributed content. Performers receive an anonymous remuneration in the cryptocurrency called STFcoin for their work.

Bit Tunes startup working on blockchain is also fighting the piracy but on its own manner. The company helps independent artists distribute their content among fans without any intermediaries using a legal peer-to-peer platform. The users (siders) receive a small reward in bitcoins for sharing their creative product.

The music industry has long needed a total purge from a huge number of intermediaries, having the most of the money that artist should actually receive. And exactly the intermediaries are now trying to delay the advent of the era of transparency and the transition of the industry to blockchain. Of course they can succeed, but not for long. The revolution has begun. And we can make such conclusion because there are more and more platforms willing to solve the main issues of artist through a distributed register.