Blockchain in music: 30 companies at the cutting edge

The music industry is undergoing a significant transformation, thanks to the introduction and integration of blockchain technology.

Traditionally, issues like equitable royalty payments, music rights management, and the authenticity of tickets have plagued the industry.

However, blockchain is emerging as a promising solution to these challenges.

The role of blockchain in music

Blockchain, a distributed ledger technology, is revolutionizing how we approach the business of music.

This technology ensures a fair and transparent system for the creation, purchase, sale, and management of music.

It’s not just about cryptocurrencies; blockchain is about establishing a new, decentralized framework for the music industry.

Artists are now able to receive royalties directly and instantly, without the need for intermediaries.

This shift is not just beneficial for established artists but is particularly advantageous for independent musicians who often struggle to get their fair share in the traditional music industry setup.

Leading companies in blockchain music technology

Here are some of the companies at the forefront of blockchain tech in music.

1. Sound (Fully Remote)

Sound revolutionizes the artist-fan dynamic with its Web3-based NFT platform. It enables artists to release songs as NFTs, fostering a closer connection with fans.

Early NFT versions of songs have unique numbers, adding a bragging right for early adopters. Fans holding onto their NFTs can engage more directly with artists, leaving public comments on songs and participating in exclusive Discord hangouts.

2. MediaChain (Brooklyn, New York)

Acquired by Spotify, MediaChain uses blockchain for efficient information sharing across applications and organizations.

It organizes open-source information and works directly with artists to ensure fair and transparent royalty payments through smart contracts, cutting out complex intermediaries.

3. Royal (Austin, Texas)

Royal transforms music fans into investors. Through their platform, artists can sell a portion of their song’s royalties, and fans can buy these as tokens.

This innovative approach allows fans to earn from the song’s success and potentially trade their tokens on NFT exchanges.

4. Digimarc (Beaverton, Oregon)

Digimarc is at the forefront of licensing music through blockchain integration. Their Digimarc Barcode technology for music fingerprinting allows the tracking of music sources and streamlining royalty payments.

This digital watermarking works with a wide array of music files, providing comprehensive insights for music rights holders.

5. The Open Music Initiative (OMI) (Boston, Massachusetts)

OMI champions open-source protocols in the music industry using blockchain.

Their goal is to establish transparent systems for identifying rightful music rights holders and originators, ensuring they receive fair royalty payments.

Members include renowned names like Soundcloud, Red Bull Media, and Netflix.

6. OneOf (Los Angeles, California)

OneOf is a distinctive platform specializing in NFTs that spans across sports, music, and lifestyle sectors.

The platform differentiates itself by offering a tiered system for NFT collections, catering to a range of preferences and investment levels. These tiers include varied offerings, from standard NFTs to exclusive and more rare items.

The highest tier, known as OneOf, features the most unique and sought-after NFTs, often paired with VIP experiences and available exclusively through auction formats.

7. Async Art (San Francisco, California)

Async Art focuses on making Web3 technology accessible to creatives. Artists can develop and sell their music on Async’s NFT marketplace without worrying about coding.

The platform enables artists to create personalized song versions for fans, enhancing the music experience.

8. Mycelia (Fully Remote)

Spearheaded by artist Imogen Heap, Mycelia is an ambitious project aiming to create a comprehensive music database on blockchain.

Their goal is to ensure fair and swift compensation and recognition for artists. The Creative Passport, their key feature, contains detailed song information, streamlining the payment and acknowledgment process.

9. Viberate (Ljubljana, Slovenia)

Viberate uses blockchain to manage vast amounts of crowdsourced data. They offer real-time artist profiles, including upcoming shows and social media engagement.

The platform rewards community participants with VIB tokens, positioning itself as a significant digital currency in the music industry.

10. Zora (Los Angeles, California)

Zora is a dynamic NFT marketplace protocol, allowing artists to continually earn from their original work each time it is resold.

This model benefits creatives by providing ongoing compensation for their art, fostering a sustainable economic model for artists.

11. Musicoin (Hong Kong, China)

Musicoin, based in Hong Kong, China, revolutionizes music streaming by ensuring artists receive 100% of streaming revenue, a stark contrast to conventional streaming platforms.

Utilizing blockchain technology, this platform guarantees secure and transparent transactions between artists and listeners. By advocating for a shared economy in music, Musicoin eliminates traditional intermediaries, facilitating a direct connection between artists and their audience.

This model not only empowers artists financially but also democratizes the listening experience for fans, fostering a more equitable music industry landscape.

12. Blokur (Oxford, United Kingdom)

Blokur combines AI with blockchain to manage music rights data.

It helps music publishers catalog their work and ensures that the right artists are compensated accurately by resolving source disputes through AI analysis.

13. BitSong (Malta)

BitSong is the first decentralized music streaming platform focused on benefiting both artists and listeners.

Artists earn from ads attached to their songs, and listeners are rewarded for their engagement, fostering a mutually beneficial ecosystem.

14. Blockpool (London, England)

Blockpool creates custom blockchain solutions for the music industry, including digital tokens, smart contracts, and tracking systems for licensing and intellectual property rights, supporting artists throughout the production and distribution process.

15. Audius (San Francisco, California)

Audius is a decentralized streaming platform that eliminates intermediaries, connecting artists directly with their audience.

Artists have complete control over their content and earnings, with immediate royalty payments facilitated through the platform.

16. eMusic (New York, New York)

eMusic offers a blockchain-based platform for music distribution and royalty management, ensuring artists and fans are rewarded fairly.

It features instant royalty payouts, rights management, fan-to-artist crowdfunding, and exclusive content for fans.

17. OnChain Music (Santa Monica, California)

OnChain is at the forefront of integrating blockchain technology in the music industry, particularly focusing on enhancing artists’ earnings.

The platform specializes in leveraging blockchain to streamline the process of royalty distribution, ensuring that artists receive fair and timely payments.

Additionally, OnChain Music embraces the burgeoning market of NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens), providing artists with a new avenue to monetize their work through digital sales. This approach not only offers increased financial benefits for artists but also introduces a novel method for fans to own and interact with music-related digital assets.

Through these innovative strategies, OnChain Music is redefining the economic model for artists in the digital music era.

18. Stem (Los Angeles, California)

Stem focuses on transforming how artists and content creators manage and monetize their work. By employing blockchain technology, Stem offers a transparent and efficient system for tracking usage and distributing royalties.

This ensures artists receive timely and fair payments for their content. Additionally, Stem provides detailed analytics, giving creators a deeper insight into their audience and earnings.

19. Ujo Music (New York, New York)

Ujo Music utilizes the Ethereum blockchain to create a decentralized database for music ownership and rights. Their platform simplifies the process of royalty distribution and rights management, making it more efficient for artists and rights holders.

Ujo Music allows artists to store, manage, and sell their content directly to listeners, thereby cutting out intermediaries. This approach also enables artists to maintain greater control over their work and revenue.

20. Bittunes (Australia)

Bittunes operates as a peer-to-peer music-sharing and earning platform, leveraging Bitcoin for transactions.

It empowers independent artists by allowing them to earn directly as their music is purchased and shared within the network.

The platform’s unique model incentivizes both artists and consumers, promoting a more collaborative music ecosystem. Bittunes also focuses on global music distribution, broadening the reach for independent artists.

21. Revelator (Tel Aviv, Israel)

Revelator provides a blockchain-based platform for managing digital assets and tracking royalties. This system ensures more transparent and efficient rights management for artists and music companies.

Revelator’s analytics tools offer insights into content performance, helping artists and labels make informed decisions. Furthermore, their platform streamlines the distribution process, making it easier for artists to release their music across multiple channels.

22. Paperchain (New York, New York)

Paperchain employs blockchain to provide media companies, including music streaming services, with faster and more transparent payment solutions.

The platform allows artists to access their streaming revenue more quickly than traditional payment cycles. By leveraging decentralized ledger technology, Paperchain ensures accuracy and transparency in revenue tracking and distribution.

This approach significantly reduces the time between content consumption and revenue payout to creators.

23. Resonate (Berlin, Germany)

Resonate is a cooperatively owned music streaming service built on blockchain technology. It introduces a ‘stream-to-own’ model, where listeners gradually own a track after a certain number of plays, ensuring fairer compensation for artists.

Resonate’s community-driven approach promotes equitable and transparent interactions between artists and fans. The platform also emphasizes data privacy and ethical music consumption, aligning with the values of its user base.

24. Vezt (Los Angeles, California)

Vezt provides a unique platform where fans can invest in their favorite music and artists by acquiring a share of song royalties.

This blockchain-based approach allows artists to monetize their work by offering partial ownership of their songs to fans.

Vezt simplifies the royalty-sharing process, making it accessible for fans to earn a return from the music they love. The platform also enhances the connection between artists and their audience, creating a more engaged fan base.

25. Opus (Warsaw, Poland)

Opus is a decentralized music streaming platform designed to give artists more control over their music and earnings.

Utilizing the Ethereum blockchain, Opus reduces server costs and ensures a larger portion of revenue goes directly to artists.

The platform’s unique decentralized storage system allows users to support artists more directly than traditional streaming services. Opus also incentivizes music discovery, rewarding users for creating playlists that help spread music across the platform.

26. Muzika (South Korea)

Muzika is reshaping the music industry by integrating blockchain technology to create a new ecosystem for musicians and fans.

The platform supports digital sales, crowdfunding, and direct fan-to-artist interactions, enhancing the artist’s ability to monetize and promote their work.

Muzika’s approach empowers artists by providing more control over their music and financial independence. Additionally, it offers fans new ways to engage with and support their favorite artists, bridging the gap between the two.

27. Pindify (Gothenburg, Sweden)

Pindify is a marketplace for creatives, including musicians, utilizing blockchain to ensure secure and fair payment systems.

The platform allows artists to publish, manage, and monetize their content in a secure environment. Pindify’s subscription-based model ensures a steady revenue stream for artists, while fans gain access to exclusive content.

The platform’s use of blockchain technology guarantees transparency and fairness in the distribution of revenue, making it an attractive option for independent artists.

28. Amuse (Stockholm, Sweden)

Amuse, a music distribution company, uses blockchain to empower independent artists.

They offer free music distribution services and leverage blockchain to ensure transparent and prompt royalty payments.

This approach gives artists greater control over their earnings and simplifies the financial aspects of music distribution.

29. Blokur (London, England)

Blokur specializes in using blockchain and AI to assist music publishers and creators with rights management and royalty distribution.

Their platform simplifies the complexities of tracking and managing music rights across various stakeholders, ensuring that artists and rights holders are accurately compensated for their work.

Blokur’s technology streamlines the process of rights data reconciliation, making it more efficient and transparent.

30. Bitfury Surround (Amsterdam, Netherlands)

Bitfury Surround is focused on transforming the music industry through blockchain technology.

Their Surround™ platform aims to solve the challenges of copyright and ownership transparency, payment inefficiencies, and fragmented databases in the music industry.

By providing a blockchain-based ecosystem, Bitfury Surround enables more efficient and fair payment distributions, streamlines rights management, and offers an integrated marketplace for music and content rights.

This technology not only benefits artists and rights holders but also contributes to a more transparent and connected music industry ecosystem.

Why focus on blockchain?

The shift towards blockchain in music is not just a technological change but a cultural and economic one.

By covering these developments, we at MIDDER aim to keep our readers informed about the future of music.

These companies, with their innovative approaches, are not just solving old problems but are opening up new opportunities for artists and fans alike.

Blockchain in music is more than a trend; it’s a fundamental shift in how music is created, distributed, and monetized.

As we continue to witness the evolution of this technology, it’s clear that the future of music will be more transparent, fair, and interconnected than ever before.

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