If you happen to be a music lover and have been keeping yourself abreast with the latest in the music industry across the world, then you aren’t new to the tussles that take place between artistes and record labels/streaming companies with respect to their rights and royalties.
The ones working in organized industries such as the movies, might still be getting their dues, but more often than not, independent artistes are the ones that face the music, quite literally. And it doesn’t affect the singers alone. It is a challenge for any creative talent in the music industry, be it the songwriters, music composers or production associates. Being the creator/originator of a piece of work need not necessarily give them the right to their profits yet – which is rightfully theirs.
Music Industry – At the Cusp of Technological Transformation
Technology has left none untouched. Though musicians and technicians have long been using technology to create and improvise music, they have not yet utilised it to protect their rights.
Right now, we are witnessing the greatest technological disruption ever, where every person is empowered to create their own content and publish it. However, obsolete infrastructure, lack of knowledge and illicit practices along with plagiarism and piracy are leading to the exploitation of content as well as rights of the content creator. Therefore, artistes often fail to convert their craft into cash.
Such challenges arise because musicians have little to no knowledge about calculations of royalty payments and also don’t get access to valuable data such as the number of people listening to their music, their geographies etc. But this is soon going to become history. Today, several musicians and bands have woken up to the idea of engaging themselves in the business of music. Many are demanding transparency in the way their music is reaching the audience and the way it is consumed.
The recent lawsuits of Paul McCartney against Sony, Duran Duran’s with Sony and Taylor Swift’s squabble with Spotify cannot be disregarded. Though they were fighting for their individual rights to their content, the bigger picture is to take these incidents as a start to induce a fair culture of transparency and trust amongst artistes, record labels and streaming companies as a whole.
Blockchain – The New Stream of Life for Musicians
A relatively new platform, Blockchain is a technology that is running on various devices and is open to anyone and everyone. It enables Blockchain – Leading The Music Industry Revolution recording and storing of data in a secured manner. Currently, making a wave in the financial industry, the data it secures is not restricted to money, contracts and knowledge, but can also include art, music and research material.
When this powerful technology is integrated into the music industry, it gives birth to an ecosystem for creativity to flourish, where artistes highly value transparency and integrity with respect to their rights, privacy, security and income.
In simple terms, Blockchain technology will empower the artistes to sell their craft to the right audience directly, without losing out to the middlemen. This creates an enhanced environment for artistes as well as music lovers worldwide, to self-promote their music and make it accessible to their fans digitally as well as by physical distribution.
Embrace Infosys Nia Provenance For Traceability, Transparency and Trust
Nia Provenance is an asset & industry agnostic, blockchain based application that lets businesses establish traceability of the product, transparency of the processes and trust-worthiness of the information across the lifecycle of assets (or) products.
Unlike other blockchain based applications, Nia Provenance is a private network exclusive to the involved parties, non-reliant on cryptocurrency, It is an uncompromising vision of enabling information symmetry and total accountability across a decentralized yet immersive network of stakeholders across the supply chain.
With Nia Provenance flowing into the music industry, each party can have access to the whole database and no one can control or manipulate the data. There’s no central medium and direct communication between parties is made possible. Also, it brings zero/minimal disruption in the existing working style. So, one continues to do what they have been doing, with added benefit of complete privacy brought in by Nia Provenance.
Built on the essential levers of traceability, transparency and trust, Nia Provenance makes every transaction visible to anyone with access to the system, and once the data is entered, nobody can change the records.
Music Industry – Dancing to the Tunes of Blockchain
We aren’t very far from the time when artistes will be duly acknowledged and compensated for the content they create. Blockchain technology is here to stay and the sooner we embrace it, the earlier we would benefit.
Make it happen with Nia Provenance. It is a clear case of disruptive technology – Soulful music to the ears, through the years.
