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International Music DJ, Gareth Emery, Brings Blockchain Project To Music Industry

This article is more than 6 years old.

Gareth Emery

Since the digitization of music, the need to find new methods of access and distribution to music has become more prevalent. Since the birth of Napster, Kazaa, and Limewire, the music industry has taken a hit in terms of music sales. Listeners have easier access to content, while the creators of said content aren’t necessarily getting the bang for their buck.

So, how does introducing blockchain technology affect the accessibility and distribution of music? I turned to international house music DJ, Gareth Emery, and why his latest project, Choon, is the music industry of the future.

If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It, Right? Enter ‘Choon’.

https://www.choon.co/

Andrew Rossow: What do you believe to be the biggest challenge in the music industry?

Gareth Emery: It's never really adapted to deal with the internet. Twenty years ago when Napster first appeared, the music business was one of the first to really be disrupted by this online world.  The industry went from making money selling vinyl’s and CDs…to [digital] downloads, and now we are in a phase of streaming. Napster changed everything.

While there's been good progress made, the problem lies in the structure of the industry itself. "With each move forward, the artists get more and more sidelined, as music becomes more inaccessible and the structure remains antiquated." said the artist.

Emery: We have a system that was set up in the days of jukeboxes and sheet music. It’s completely unfit for purpose in a modern world–it’s incredibly long-winded, and there’s no way to really track the monies being paid to people, fairly.

Emery isn’t the first artist to take issue with payment distribution in the industry. We’ve seen artists like Taylor Swift and JayZ take strides towards bringing the artist and listener closer together without the need for middle institutions.

Emery: For me, the next evolution of the music industry is one where music is accessible and easy to get hold of, like it is now. [But] at the same time, one where content creators are getting compensated for their work, not the intermediaries laying claim to most of the income. Let’s not try and build on the infrastructure we currently have; it’s not a stable platform to build on. Almost any attempt to modernize the music industry has failed due to the large number of stakeholders.

Users and fans will be able to purchase music by using the NOTE token. It’s the music industry of the future,” said the DJ. The note provides for an immediate flow of payment, from the listener to the artist, with complete and utter transparency. The listener can withdraw it and either cash it out, or convert it into another coin (bitcoin) through exchange platforms.

Growing The Relationship Between Listeners and Artist

The platform would allow for a more 1-1 relationship between the listener and the artist. While it provides a place for listeners to come stream music, it also allows for bi-directional payments between them. As a result, the artist(s) are provided with itemized distribution statements, that are completely transparent, but for the number of streams, name of songs, and royalty distribution. In terms of seeing that bang for your buck, "it’s days versus years,” said Emery.

Payment Distribution

In the conventional music industry, it takes a few years to get paid from a stream. By cutting out record labels and institutions, and moving contracts over to the blockchain, the artist would be able to receive their royalty distributions in real-time, with every distribution recorded on the ledger.

Curated Playlists

Users like to build custom-playlists, which in turn, attract millions of subscribers and followers. But, what if users could profit off that? "In my opinion, users should get paid for that," said the artist. Under Emery's "monetized playlist" concept, a listener who is opted in, get paid 5% off of the streams contained in their playlist. Artists have the choice on whether to opt in and shave off 5% off their royalties, putting it into the playlist creator's wallet, or electing against it, and keeping 100% of their royalties.

"Listeners are able to sell access to themselves," explained Emery.

Respecting Intellectual Property

From an intellectual property standpoint, Choon enforces ownership rights as it pertains to uploading tracks. While not in direct competition with Spotify or Apple Music, Choon's radical model requires artists to entirely own their own music. "Our catalog is going to be very different from that of Spotify or Apple Music," said Emery.

By Utilizing Smart Contracts, Legal Costs Are Minimized

Choon enforces these relationships through smart contracts stored on the Ethereum blockchain. While a contract enforceable by law outlines the terms of parties’ relationships, a ‘smart contract’ enforces the relationship with cryptographic code. “At the end of the day, we aren’t going to have the catalog that Spotify has, and I’m actually fine with that. It allows us to be so much more groundbreaking in terms of our technology,” said Emery .

"The focus is on whether the artist wants to maintain creative control over their work, or sign their rights away." Emery indicated that copyright protection measures are taken by scanning each individual track through Gracenote, ensuring the artist actually owns the rights to the song. With a collaboration among band members, negotiating a standard contract can get expensive, timely, and even sticky, as it pertains to royalty distribution. The goal is to minimize the legal costs, time, and potential conflicts among band members.

 “You make that contract without lawyers...and come distribution time, you don’t have to worry if I am trustworthy or if I’m  paying you what you’re owed, because it just happens, in real time—in the blockchain.” –Gareth Emery

Maintaining Artist, Listener Privacy and Transparency

While the identities of individuals remain completely anonymous, the number of streams an artist has, does not. Every day, a report is generated, providing the artist with figures; then royalties are pro-rated and split. "If a listener wants to comment or post a review, by all means; otherwise, their identity is protected," said Emery.

Rossow: So, the data isn’t being stored on a server?

Emery: It’s a combination. For the most sensitive content, such as legal contracts and financial distribution, that’s done on the blockchain. As it should, because it needs to be handled in the most sensitive way. But, at the same time, when it comes to preserving the artist’s rights to their content, we regulate it by scanning each track through Gracenote, which is still centralized.

However, when it comes to less-sensitive content, e.g., the music streaming angle, we decentralize in a traditional fashion. How and where music is stored, works much better in this structure; otherwise, it would take 30 seconds to load a song, which most people would agree is unacceptable.

What Does The Future Hold For Choon?

Competition and Fees

Rossow: What do users need to know about membership and subscriptions?

Emery: At launch, we won’t be charging a fee. A year or two into this, adverts will come out and a similar monthly membership structure like Spotify, will be instilled.

There’s alot of amazing products out there, but many of these blockchain and crypto ideas, have few uses and aren’t designed for the end-game consumer. “This could be one of the first platforms to introduce blockchain technology into the real world,” says the artist. This is a really cool thing for people who are new artists or listeners who want to earn cryptocurrencies themselves, in a less-complicated, expensive manner.

And to my fans out there, I’ve been really overwhelmed by the support over the years and with this project. I didn’t realize the scale of the problems [the music industry is facing], and it wasn’t until our announcement, did we realize the necessity to introduce this technology.” The impact of this technology is going to be truly incredible.  

Gareth also accepted the #CYBERBYTE challenge, taking an active stand against cyberbullying and online trolls. You can see his video response here.

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