Why Ethereum is the Blockchain that Could Change the Music Industry

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Since torrenting gained popularity in the late 1990s into the 2000s, musicians and others in the entertainment industry have been up in arms.

Instead of buying music from music stores, customers were sharing copies of whole albums, feature length movies and other media. Instead of paying the artists and production companies for the rights to distribute the work, customers paid a monthly or annual fee to torrenting companies, (usually around $20 a month or less), to have unlimited sharing access. Though torrenters often received their fair share of peer-to-peer computer viruses, the entertainment industry, (especially the music industry), took a hard financial blow.

After Torrenting, it Got Worst

People eventually began posting music and entertainment content online. Customers could then download their favorite songs and albums for free and view or listen to content at their leisure.

Though many independent artists and production companies have used accessibility strategies through social media and free content to build profitable brands around their name or company; traditional music industry corporations would have rework their business models in order not to lose profits due to the distribution of free music and media.

Because the internet has made copywritten work so accessible to the public for free, most artists are lucky if they can sell their individual songs on Amazon for .99 cents USD per track.

However, in 2015 and 2016, people who cared about fair compensation in the entertainment industry started looking at the Blockchain to fix its problems.

How Could Bitcoin Help Music?

When people thought of the Blockchain, they instantly thought of Bitcoin, (the world’s first cryptocurrency established on its own Blockchain.) However, as companies started to create alpha and beta platforms integrating the Blockchain into their music industry businesses, it became obvious that most of these companies were using Ethereum as opposed to the traditional Bitcoin blockchain to build their businesses on.

Why is This?

Ether is the digital currency token produced on the Ethereum platform. What makes Ethereum different than Bitcoin is that Bitcoin exists on a Blockchain to conduct financial transactions only. The Ethereum platform allows its users to build secure, executable applications on its Blockchain.

Because of this, companies that are trying to build a solution to a problem will choose to use Ethereum. In addition to the music industry, companies from other industries like finance, real estate and investments are all building industrial applications on the Ethereum platform.

How Does Ethereum Benefit the Music Industry Specifically?

Platforms built on the Ethereum Blockchain allow artists and other important parties in the chain of production of copywritten work to receive compensation immediately.

Smart Contracts are executable contracts that are triggered by exchanges on the Ethereum Blockchain. When an artist creates work, he or she can immediately determine who will receive rewards, royalties or compensation when the work is played or distributed.

Instead of taking months to get paid for a performance, the feature of your song on a TV show or for any other reason; smart contracts execute financial transactions to pay the right people, right away.

The Blockchain is a more secure way of doing everything. Most blockchains are completely transparent. Therefore, when you create and distribute work on the Ethereum Blockchain, this creates evidence that you are the copyright holder of that original work.

Artists and companies can also use their Ethereum-based platforms to raise money for their projects via crowdfunding. Fans can invest in music, reward their favorite artists and engage their favorite artists with tokens. Programmers can create digital tokens for use with their Ethereum based platforms. They can assign tokens monetary value and create a true digital currency or do other things with them.

These are some of the many reasons that Ethereum is the chosen platform many in the music industry are using to establish their new companies. Ethereum offers security and efficiency for handling transactions in the modern age.

Do you think Ethereum offers the solution that the music industry needs? Do you think the entire music industry will one day use the Blockchain for all its transactions? Chime in below.

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