The Beauty When Music Meets Web3

Introduction

The music industry is often criticized for being over-centralized, and the whole value chain is processed with a number of middlemen like record labels, agents, promoters, and producers.

However, as the infrastructure and technologies of Web3 mature, the advantages of Web3 - decentralization, community engagement and ownership enhancement - could be a pivotal solution to solve the fundamental problems rooted in the music industry.

In this article, we will first discuss the fundamental problems within the music industry. In addition, from a recent AMA with BNB Chain, we will summarize the views of the Co-Founder and CEO of Corite, Matthias Tengblad, on how Web3 can empower music artists like never before.

Corite is a Web3 music platform that allows users to support their favorite musicians while also sharing their successes. As one of the BNB Chain Dapp Stars in May, the Corite team greatly believes Web3 can positively impact the music industry.

The problems in the music industry – a brief history

#1 Musicians struggle without resources from Record Labels

Many musicians struggled a lot before they succeeded. Megastars like Madonna, Lady Gaga, Ed Sheeran, and Beyoncé were rejected by record labels when they were still independent musicians, which made it difficult for them to produce and promote their recordings without adequate resources.

Even if record labels sign musicians and their albums sell well, it doesn’t mean those musicians will increase their income. In 2011, Trivium guitarist and vocalist Matt Heafy received a royalty cheque for 1.31 cents after his band’s album sold over 20,000 copies in its first week and topped billboards across the US. This is an experience that many musicians are familiar with.

#2 Musicians do not entirely own Royalties

If we look into history, we notice that musicians never had much say on where the royalties go.

The 60s to 70s: Royalties were almost completely owned by record labels

During the 60s to 70s, most musicians were signed by record labels. These entities held a monopoly on the whole value chain because they could provide studios for musicians to record, which costs massive amounts of money. They also owned a large proportion of the royalties of musicians’ recordings.

The 2000s: Computers and MP3s reduce the power of record labels

The emergence of computers and MP3 digital technology allowed people to record music at home without the need to go to the studio, which caused a shock to the entire music industry because pirated copies circulated like crazy on the internet, which significantly affected the income of the whole music industry.

Recent years: Music streaming has grown in popularity

In the streaming era, many self-distribution service apps like Spotify and YouTube allow people to publish their songs without any label. Labels have lost both the production and distribution monopoly, but they still know best  how to execute music marketing and finance projects. As a result, there are still many musicians who would prefer to sign contracts with labels and give away a large proportion of royalties.

How can Web3 transform and solve the problems of the music industry?

In the traditional music industry, the power of determining artists' success and the royalties are centralized in the hands of record labels. But with the maturity of Web3 infrastructures and technologies, we can see a paradigm shift of power from middlemen to musicians and fans.

#1 Web3 can decentralize the fundraising process

There are plenty of cases where record labels help artists succeed in their careers. However, since record labels are still the gatekeepers of the music industry, they have the power to dictate who is a “good artist” with “good music”. Record labels also put terms in contracts that are highly favorable to themselves instead of the artists.

With the presence of Web3 and its permissionless and decentralization functions, the music industry no longer needs to operate through a number of middlemen. Artists can now put their songs on platforms to seek fans who love their music and will back them. Fans can now become investors to back artists and earn profits in return. The fundraising process for artists to produce music is not monopolized by record labels anymore but decentralized to fans. This is also one of the ultimate goals that Corite, a Web3 crowdfunding and fan interaction platform, wants to achieve.

Corite provides two solutions for artists. They can raise money to create their music in Corite. If artists need marketing and promotion support, they can be supported by fans within Corite, and fans will promote the songs through different channels. Music has always been about fandom.

Tengblad believes Corite could become a platform that allows fans to spot potential rising stars. “There were several videos when Ed Sheeran was a street musician before he got signed. These are the kind of moments you want to find out. Imagine he put the song on Corite, and you invested in it, and then boom! It's fun for the fans, who can now join the ride to share the success with artists.”

#2 Web3 creates a win-win situation for both musicians and fans

By taking away the middlemen, fans help artists leverage their fan power to the fullest by financing the music via Corite. The Web3 platform allows artists to distribute their music to different platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, TikTok, YouTube, etc. After that, Corite collects the money from royalties and splits it amongst everyone participating in the backing.

According to the demo demonstrated by Tengblad in the AMA, artists can set up a campaign on Corite. They decide how much money they want to raise and how much profit they're prepared to share with their backers.

In the campaign, as a backer, they can find the different music on Corite. If they like it, they can back it and get a piece of the revenues from Spotify and the other streaming services. Therefore, Corite as a platform and the community will try to squeeze the use out of every backer to help promote songs so both artists and fans can share the success.

#3 Web3 can strengthen the ownership of music

By combining Web3 and blockchain technology with music, both musicians and fans can strengthen their ownership of music.

Fans can pay with traditional fiat currencies like PayPal or credit cards as well as crypto on Corite. According to Tengblad, “When I invest in an artist with crypto through Metamask, I will also get paid back in crypto through the smart contract, so you can check it out on BscScan just to check that all your transactions are there.”

In the future, Tengblad revealed that Corite would also add elements like NFTs (non-fungible tokens) to enhance the ownership of fans in music. “You can stake your song shares and pimp the NFTs. You can make your NFT cooler by putting more song shares into your NFT. You can create your little portfolio of songs in your NFT. If you're good enough as a backer, you will find great songs with much potential. That NFTs could then be traded among each other.”

Corite has always been working hard to strengthen the ownership of fans. One of their hot campaigns is the song share campaign with superstar Norwegian DJ and producer Alan Walker.  Imagine how cool it is when you can back a well-known artist! The fan campaign has raised $25,000 in backing, with a minimum contribution of $1 and a maximum contribution of $10 per account. All backers will receive a share of the streaming revenue generated by Walker’s new song “Unity” for the first five years after release.

“The whole goal here is to get as many people as possible on board, so we put down the threshold to $1 and the maximum investment at $10 so everybody will be able to participate. We don't want to have people with a lot of money buying the song share of “Unity”. We want thousands of people joining this campaign to be able to do some missions together to make sure that this song becomes a huge success,” Tengblad explained.

The beauty when music meets Web3

Media owned the power of dedicating which songs were “cool'' decades ago. As media like radio and television determined the songs we listened to, and the agenda was set for the audience.

But now, Web3 has come. It's all been about empowering the artists and the fans. People are being provided with the tools to create, distribute, raise awareness, build their brands, and share their art with the world. Fans can decide what music they want to listen to. This is exactly the beauty when music meets Web3.

If you’re a musician seeking exposure and backers to invest in your music, please don’t hesitate to join Corite here and find new opportunities! Follow Corite on Twitter and Telegram for more information.