In the sphere of cryptocurrencies, innovative projects have opened doors to a new form of economy. In the music industry, experts believe cryptocurrencies will profoundly alter our ways to consume music content. The music business is fierce because the competition is hard, revenues are cut down, and creative work tough to produce. We say that due to streaming revenues decreasing (for musicians) and label being more and more demanding, the number of musicians has shrunk by 40% since 1999. Today, there’s a great hope for music producers worldwide to produce their art and make a living of it with blockchain. Within a decade, blockchain has created new boundaries for musicians to generate new revenues, and manage their digital content properly, like real entrepreneurs. But is it viable yet? Can artists really earn from blockchain platforms today? Let’s explore the case of imusify, the award-winning blockchain platform.
Enter the Smart Music Economy
Based on the promises of blockchain as a transparent and immutable source for artists and fans to connect directly, imusify has invented the music economy of tomorrow. On the platform, record producers and fans can exchange value and manage their own content, without paying any third-party. The system works because the music industry is filled with new music everyday that stays hidden or undiscovered (for example, on the major streaming platforms, volume matters so for new artists looking to breakthrough, there’s little chance to get large streams and therefore known) — while musicians' revenues (at least from streaming) remain stagnant as seen in this last post.
The financial model offered by imusify revisits entirely the music industry from scratch, cutting down middlemen who keep away musicians' revenues from streaming or royalties, but furthermore, improve digital file management — helping artists to protect their work and to even track payment and copyright holders more efficiently. Basically, the smart music economy fuelled by imusify offers artists new forms of revenues, and the most ultimate music services management, in the digital world. When fans and artists exchange value and get paid for it, then the entire USD 17 billion recording industry revenues could better reach creators, finally.
IMU Tokens: utility tokens to exchange value
Aware that blockchain is still a novelty for many artists, imusify has built an ergonomic, easy-to-use, and complete platform that combines social media, file sharing, streaming, and crowdfunding all at once. As imusify is a blockchain-based music application, IMU Tokens — imusify cryptocurrency — are used within the ecosystem to exchange value, to reward fans and musicians, and to be used fully within the platform. For example, when a musician enters a new song on the blockchain, they receive IMU Tokens when their song is played by a third-party — thanks to smart contract issuance that keeps royalties management accurate and transparent — and can even use such Tokens to divide the song between copyright holders. The fact that IMU Tokens are divisible (imagine a small portion of the digital asset that can be tracked out and sold to anyone on the blockchain) enables musicians to manage to crowdfund but also improve collaboration between artists while they can maintain total ownership of their work.
Therefore, if I am going to work with a new artist to do a remix of my song, I’ll be able to allocate a part of my song to the blockchain to this artist, so each of us can receive our royalties. Furthermore, I can also fund my next tour to promote my new album, selling some IMU Tokens on imusify. And obviously, streaming payouts become even more interesting compared to any other platform, because on imusify, content is not managed by volume but by active participation, offering possibilities for new artists to play the game and get discovered. Indeed, participants are encouraged to vote for the songs they love, which means the number of streams is irrelevant in such scenario; rather it’s more the direct musicians/fans interactions that matter and is rewarded accurately. Talking about rewards, IMU Tokens are sent out each time fans listen to some songs on imusify, create a playlist, or even help an artist reach fame by reposting their content onto their social network.
In short, musicians and fans are now in control of what they want to listen and nobody can lose anymore since everyone is now an active participant within the smart music economy — and not a passive consumer of music anymore as seen currently within the out-of-sync music business.