Blockchain to Disrupt Music Industry and Make It Change Tune

While streaming platforms have changed the way music is consumed, making it more widely available to the listener, it has also created a whole new level of intermediation between artists and fans.

The music streaming industry has certainly come as a stark improvement, providing a cost-efficient and user-friendly alternative to piracy, allowing artists to receive royalties for their work.

As is the case with many things, the distribution of royalties to artists resembles a Pareto chart where a very small percentage of artists account for the majority of music streams and thus royalty earnings.

This system allows the artist to retain almost all of the payments made by premium users or ad revenue generated by freemium users, which, according to Opus, is where the majority of revenue comes from - as high as 90%.Simplifying the music industry.

Blockchain technology is also becoming an easy and streamlined way for independent artists to deal with other facets of the industry that can often be challenging for upcoming artists.

Marzio Schena, the co-founder and CEO of ANote Music, explained to Cointelegraph at the time: "Our goal is to unlock the hidden value in music for both investors and artists by creating a stock-exchange platform for music investments."

While platforms such as Viberate already feature over 450,000 artists, which is an impressive feat, industry giants are also trying out new blockchain-based incentive models - most noticeably, one of the three major labels in the industry, Warner Music Group.

Jeff Bronikowski, the global head of strategic music initiatives at Apple and the former senior vice president of business development at Warner Music, previously told Cointelegraph: "The main goal is to create new avenues where the fans of our artists can explore their fandom and engage with the artists in new and different ways that they haven't done before."

Will blockchain technology help shift control and revenue back into artists' hands? It seems like progress is already being made, but there is also a lot of room for growth, as artists are drawn to relatively higher earnings.

While these improved incentives for both artists and fans may help push the use of blockchain in the music industry forward, the industry's previous mishaps may play the crucial role in driving artists toward new and improved systems.