The music industry is plagued by fallacies. In response to rapid changes in new media and technology, the industry's power structures are difficult to navigate. Even in the digital age, there are serious imbalances. It's easy to see why disruption is a top priority for many innovators working in this space-and why it's especially well-suited for experimenting with upheaval.
Web3 and music: what are the benefits
But not everything should be interrupted. Data Music is on the right track in many ways. A question worth asking: what is there to keep in moving the industry forward?
quantity. Between Soundcloud, Spotify, AppleMusic among the major players and independent platforms throughout the world, there is an almost endless supply of music for casual audiences and deep divers alike. On Spotify, the available data shows that 60,000 new songs are submitted every day.
quality. Big label studios are no longer the only chance to get decent sound. These days, everyone from DIY to home producer to big star has access to the right sound tools to make music that sounds great when streamed through AirPods. At this point, for most audiences, there is little noticeable difference between listening online and listening to physical music media.
accessibility. Sure, reliable web access isn't common, but it's a lot less expensive than constantly shopping for new products. Today, a good connection represents nearly all music history being able to browse and record, and can cost as much as a CD per month for free, ad-free listening-or even less.
Areas for improvement
But while streaming music has opened all the doors, there's still plenty of room for much-needed growth and change, especially around a few key questions:
ownership. Most creators don't own all the rights to their creations. Streaming music revenues do not benefit creators, reinforcing the unfair power structures that have long been part of the record business. How do we correct this imbalance and give us the credit we really deserve?
Expensive intermediaries. Closely related to this issue is the 30% reduction on average for streaming services. We have accepted it as an industry standard. It's time to ask why and how we disrupted this model.
experience. The conundrum of how to plan an enjoyable and attractive digital music event, such as a live concert or festival, remains largely unanswered. Live broadcasts are generally classified as background noise. As general events continue to move to virtual platforms, how can an artist actually put on a show that will captivate and immerse audiences?
Each of these issues represents an opportunity for intervention that the Web community is poised to provide. Harnessing the benefits of digital music and online decentralization to deliver benefits that the industry needs, web platforms have the potential to disrupt what needs to be disrupted without disrupting music's success.
The most obvious starting point for web3 is addressing the ownership opportunity/challenge. web3. Music ownership platform capable of using blockchain: granting ownership on the Internet. There are many benefits to getting more people involved in music rights:
Diversification. Allowing the average music lover to invest in music rights would represent a fragmentation of the entire industry, taking power from corporate hegemony and giving it to those who truly love and value music. Allowing those who consume music to benefit from their popularity, web platforms are able to reach their audiences more deeply than ever before.
Fair artists and creators will be able to fund their music directly through these platforms, rather than dealing with business models that downplay their work and pass the proceeds on to outside investors. The Web3 model has the power to break the cycle of exploitation so rampant in the music industry, allowing artists to understand the true value of their rights as workers.
Ultimately, decentralized platforms allow data music to sustain its best industry, allowing artists to maintain ownership of and benefit from their work, while fans are free to join and really help shape the market rather than telling them they like middleman. By using the Web three ways, music technology companies can solve the industry's long-standing problems, while maintaining existing advantages, the perfect combination.
I love seeing ideas and projects pop up in the music NFT space (please get in touch if you have a project in progress). The projects I'm most excited about are those that try to fix broken ones. We can use it with the power of web3 to deal with things like ownership, and legacy system pain points that we haven't seen yet.
