Tweet This
- "with blockchain on the horizon, every company of every industry must re-evaluate their role in the value chain—where once again, the music industry is leading the pack."
- "with blockchain on the horizon, every company of every industry must re-evaluate their role in the value chain—where once again, the music industry is leading the pack."
Accenture Consulting wrote in a recent post on its website that "with blockchain on the horizon, every company of every industry must re-evaluate their role in the value chain—where once again, the music industry is leading the pack." Indeed, the music industry has historically been on the front lines when it comes to emerging technology upsets. And it looks like the pattern will continue. The narrative around the anticipated massive disruption in the music industry, given the promise of blockchain technology, is rooted in change that could revolutionize areas from the tracking of royalty payments to the rise of completely new gatekeepers in the arena. Several key players in the industry make 2019 predictions for the business that is the music industry, and some starkly contrast.
Explains Alan Goodman, part of the founding team at MTV and current Chief Brand Leviator at blockchain payment solutions company Aeryus, "Thanks to MTV there was a whole new eco-system around music. We didn’t just see video making as something that propelled musicians. Musicians were suddenly at the fulcrum of new businesses, and new ways of thinking about business."
He continues, "More recently, we’ve seen how musicians who understand community building can control their own destinies by conquering social media, crowdfunding and digital channel creation. But blockchain will have a massive impact on how we do business in music because of the revolutionary decentralized infrastructure."
Goodman says that during 2019 there will be much greater discussion around the control that blockchain technology provides and the ability to be fairly paid fairly an environment that prevents fraud, theft, and pirating. "The biggest discussions will be around copyright, as well," he adds.
But Adrian Miller, CEO of Xyion and architect behind recording artist Anderson Paak who has sold millions of records independently, is not actually convinced about any of the hype around blockchain and sees very little change during 2019.
"Enterprise sales to a few large incumbents is one of the hardest things to do and it can take years, maybe a decade to see results. From that standpoint, I don't understand how these blockchain based systems make enough money to exist at scale because they are trying to provide a lower cost and faster solution compared to existing databases," says Miller.
He continues, "Blockchains are not better than existing databases. Why pay for a more expensive, slower database without a good reason? Players in this space are competing against systems that don't need to change and certainly won't for one that is inferior. If blockchain business models don't disrupt the entire industry but instead rely upon converting a few big companies or organizations, its chances of success are diminished greatly so I don't see much movement at all taking place during 2019."
Miller says that he will continue research blockchain development while focusing more on traditional routes for creating greater awareness for all of the artists he works with such as Laroussi a Moroccan singer, via the Netherlands, with a debut album coming in 2019, written and produced by Philip Lawerence and Brody, the team who brought us Grammy-winning recording artist Bruno Mars.
Finally, Bryan Calhoun, head of Digital Strategy at Blueprint Group, a leading artist and entertainment management firms representing top recording talent from the Grammy-nominated Nicki Minaj to Late Night with Jimmy Fallon house band and Grammy-award winning The Roots adds additional perspective.
Goodman concurs and takes things a step further saying, "Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter, brilliant guitarist for Steely Dan, the Doobie Brother makes the point that record players were only for playing music until rappers started using them as instruments." He continues, "Artists are great at taking technology and rethinking how and why to use it, and you can bet we’ll be seeing artists and musicians doing things with blockchain soon that we can’t imagine today."
