Audius Blockchain music-streaming service heavily criticised 2 months after launch
2 months out the gate and Audius Blockchain is already receiving heat.
As more of the music industry looks towards blockchain to solve its financial troubles, a company called Audius came to be that promised to do just that- only it isn’t that easy in the complex world of music, more specifically COPYRIGHT.
Audius went public two months ago, promising to bridge the gap between artists and fans, essentially cutting out the middleman (record labels, etc) which would bring more funding to independent artists.
Audius enables high-quality streaming, unlimited uploads, dashboards, metrics, etc. Artists are free to upload tracks without fear that it will be “censored or removed,” Audius’ website states.
So what’s the problem? The problem is that Audius is basically an open house for copyright infringers without the ability to remove the infringing content.
The blockchain streaming service is aiming at up-and-comers, much like Soundcloud does. In fact, Audius CEO Roneil Rumberg told The Verge: “We really see ourselves getting into the same niche as SoundCloud right now.”
Crash and burn or soar and fly?
Another problem facing Audius is the fact that it doesn’t have a content ID system in place to sniff out infringement. “A formal process is in the works,” a company representative said. Is that good enough?
But probably the brightest red flag surrounding this company is the fact that none of the artists with content on the site are getting paid. Payment is reportedly slated “TBD as sometime next year,” Rumburg says.
The crux of the matter is that it will still compete with Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon and even SoundCloud, who can provide users with massive catalogs.
George Howard, associate professor of music business / management at Berklee College of Music and Brown University, describes this general strategy: “We’ll just stand up some music thing with a bunch of artists nobody’s ever heard of and wonder why the fuck nobody comes to our thing because they don’t understand network effect.”
Read the full write-up about Audius Blockchain via The Verge– time will tell whether the company crashes and burns or soars and flies.
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