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Since 2021, pop superstar Taylor Swift has been rerecording and releasing her entire back catalog of albums in an effort to break away from her previous record label and gain greater control over her art.

The fact she has to go through such a painstaking, expensive process just to recover what most would consider rightfully hers highlights how the music industry can be a complicated, confusing place for young artists. It has a well-deserved reputation for being a space where enthusiastic musicians often unknowingly enter into unfavorable or exploitative record contracts. 

“I would say maybe 10% of musicians have a good understanding, 1% of musicians have a great understanding, and 0.1% of musicians have an amazing understanding” of the legal and financial structure behind the music industry, Justin Blau tells Magazine. Also known as 3lau, Blau is a popular DJ and the founder of Royal, one of a handful of companies working to bridge the divide between the traditional music industry and blockchain.

Web3 or blockchain is often hyped up as the “Promised Land” for musicians, where the music industry will be democratized and decentralized, and where musicians will earn a larger slice of the profit pie by connecting directly with fans through NFTs. 

One rising use case for “music NFTs” is tokenizing a song’s royalties, allowing fans to earn a percentage of the revenue generated by their favorite artists’ music.

But music copyright law and royalty collection are highly complicated, and very much off-chain. So, where exactly does blockchain fit in, and what do artists and fans gain from its introduction?



A complicated starting point

To start with the very basics, each piece of recorded music has two copyrights associated with it: One represents the recording itself, while the other represents the underlying composition — the written lyrics and music.

Depending on how many people and companies are involved in writing and releasing a song, any one track can have multiple rights holders. Musicians who release music through record labels are often required to sign over the master recording rights to the label.

How a song’s copyrights generate multiple royalty streams
How a song’s copyrights generate multiple royalty streams. (Royal)

Each copyright also generates its own associated royalties based on whether the song was played on the radio, listened to on Spotify, featured in a movie, etc. On top of that, different organizations are responsible for collecting each type of royalty.

With all that, it’s easy to see why the average artist may not fully grasp the business side of the music industry when entering into a recording contract that benefits their label more than them.

Taylor Swift spends her 33rd birthday in the studio
Taylor Swift spends her 33rd birthday in the studio. (Instagram)

“Very few people really begin understanding the business of music and how it works, let alone the legal part of it,” Renata Lowenbraun, an attorney and CEO of Infanity — a Web3 platform for independent music artists and their communities — tells Magazine. 

“The more informed you are as a recording artist or as a songwriter, the better off you are.”

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Putting royalties on the blockchain

There are three main companies working on tokenizing traditional music royalty streams — Blau’s Royal, Anotherblock and Bolero — and they all follow the same basic premise.

A song’s rights holders divest a certain percentage of their royalties, and those royalty rights are fractionalized as NFTs. Tokenholders receive regular payouts to their crypto wallets in USDC in proportion to their share of the rights. If they wish to sell their NFTs, they can do so on the company’s website or secondary markets like OpenSea.

Justin Blau in front of a massive crowd at Electric Daisy Carnival
Justin Blau in front of a massive crowd at Electric Daisy Carnival. (Rukes/Instagram)

The core focus of Royal is streaming, and the platform has already worked with several high-profile musicians, including Nas and The Chainsmokers. Blau tells Magazine that streaming is “where most of the income comes from,” and that since fans can directly impact how often a song is streamed, “it makes the most sense to give fans the ownership in something that they actually can affect the success of.”

Royal’s NFTs live on Polygon and can be stored either in a custodial wallet managed by Royal or self-custodied using a wallet like MetaMask.

Owning a piece “Rare” by Nas also provides access to the secret menu for chicken spot Sweet Chick
Owning a piece “Rare” by Nas also provides access to the secret menu for chicken spot Sweet Chick. (Royal)

Anotherblock — which has worked with musicians like The Weeknd and R3hab — also focuses on streaming royalties and uses Ethereum. Investors can buy the NFTs with ETH using a self-custodial wallet or through the third-party wallet service Paper.

With all three platforms, the original rights holders retain ownership of the copyright itself — all they give up is a share of the royalties. Anotherblock CEO Filip Strömsten tells Magazine, “We think that the creators are the ones that have made the track, and they should be able to decide where their music is and how their music is being listened to.”

Rapper Snoop Dogg bought his old record label and now owns his masters
Rapper Snoop Dogg bought his old record label and now owns his masters. (Instagram)

Bolero is a more recent entrant to the business of putting royalties on the blockchain, launching the Polygon-based “Song Shares” in February. It has worked with musicians like Agoria and Yemi Alade.

While Royal and Anotherblock fractionalize just one of the royalty streams generated by a song’s master recording, Bolero focuses on the master recording itself and its underlying IP.

As a result, NFT holders are entitled to a percentage of the royalties generated by multiple exploitations of the master recording, including physical sales, digital sales and sync placements (when a song is used in a movie, TV show, etc) in addition to streams. 

“This is what we are trying to tackle here,” William Bailey, Bolero’s co-founder and CEO, tells Magazine.

“We are taking IP, we are fractionalizing, and thanks to this, we are able to offer multiple revenue sources.”

Keeping the artists at the center

Many builders in the Web3 music space are motivated by their own negative experiences in the business.

Blau, who continues to release music and tour, says he wants to help musicians better understand the industry, know the true value of their music, and ultimately, retain more ownership. “Everyone’s heard the saying ‘artists don’t get paid for music,’” he says. “That’s true a lot of the time. But the statement ‘music doesn’t make money’ is not true.”

Justin Blau in the studio with fellow DJ Steve Aoki
Justin Blau in the studio with fellow DJ Steve Aoki. (Twitter)

Anotherblock’s Strömsten is also a musician, and his negative experience signing a recording contract at 18 later inspired him to co-found the company so that artists could sell their catalogs directly to fans instead of giving them away for virtually free to record labels.

“We want to emotionally and financially connect the consumers of music with the creators of music,” he states. “If you actually own something, then you are probably willing to pay more, and you’re probably willing to support that creator more.”

With a traditional recording contract, the label acts as a bank, giving artists cash advances and fronting the money to record their albums. But there’s a massive catch: The label wants that money back, and the artist is technically in debt until the label recoups its investment.

For Bolero’s Bailey, selling a part of one’s music catalog directly to fans is a way to get money upfront but not be indebted to a record label. “Instead of taking an advance that will be really difficult to recoup, […] maybe you can simply share or sell a little piece of it.” He adds:

“Thanks to Web3, I can access a liquid market to trade my IP without losing creative control.”

Agoria divested 100% of his applicable royalties to collectors for his single Agorians
Agoria divested 100% of his applicable royalties to collectors for his single “Agorians.” (Bolero)

And when collectors decide to sell their tokens on secondary markets, artists can continue to profit from each sale. So while artists give up some of their future music industry royalties, they gain access to a different set of blockchain royalties generated from the secondary sales of their NFTs — assuming traders sell them on markets with this feature enabled.

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What’s in it for the fans?

So, what do fans gain from musicians tokenizing their royalties? The most obvious answer is that they can more directly support their favorite artists and get some “skin in the game.” The better a song performs, the more money fans can potentially make.

Purchasing music catalogs has historically been limited to a select few major institutional funds and record labels with deep pockets. But through fractionalization, “the average Joe can actually access music rights,” argues Strömsten.

Estimated yearly returns for Offset and Metro Boomin’s 2017 song Ric Flair Drip
Estimated yearly returns for Offset and Metro Boomin’s 2017 song “Ric Flair Drip.” (Anotherblock)

Music catalogs for major artists are generally recognized as stable assets with reliable, lucrative returns for investors. Strömsten reports that Anotherblock’s recent royalty payouts saw “approximately 9% annualized dividend yields, which is much better than the stock market is performing, especially now.”

“You buy a catalog, and if the economics are right, you’re going to have royalties coming in in the future,” adds Infanity’s Lowenbraun. She also points to the collectible nature of the NFTs themselves — fans have a blockchain-based memento proving they are long-time supporters of an artist.

Agoria poses with noted NFT collector Gmoney
Agoria poses with noted NFT collector Gmoney. (Twitter)

“Think about the bragging rights you can have, right? ‘Hey, I was an earlier supporter. I was into this in this person before anybody, before he blew up.’ But you can really prove that now.”

This aspect has also been embraced by platforms such as Sound, which recently raised $20 million in a Series A funding round that included the participation of rapper and crypto connoisseur Snoop Dogg. Projects like Sound and Infanity let artists mint limited-edition music NFTs tied to new music releases, allowing fans to directly support them in exchange for perks like exclusive meet-and-greets and VIP concert tickets.

Bolero’s Song Shares include a clause where artists can buy back the IP they divested to collectors at the current secondary market price. If the tokens have increased in value, fans make a profit.

For Bailey, this ensures fans are properly compensated in the event an artist gains greater success and wants to pursue other lucrative deals.

“The fans and the investors who are actually acquiring these pieces of catalogs, they are not lost in the process.”

Blockchain, meet the real world

For all of the promises of Web3, the traditional music industry remains very much off-chain. As Royal’s Blau puts it, “It’s impossible to expect the world to just flip a switch and move everything on the blockchain.” This effectively means that there is only partial decentralization, with these platforms acting as trusted intermediaries, collecting revenue from centralized off-chain sources before moving it on-chain. 

This irony isn’t lost on Strömsten, who tells Magazine: “I would say that is probably the biggest challenge. If you want to have a decentralized music industry to begin with, then anyone who listens to music has to do that on-chain, right? So, the royalties have to start on-chain in order for it to be completely trustless and completely decentralized in that way. And it’s pretty improbable, in my view, that in the short term that is going to happen.”

Rapper Mims tokenized part of his royalties for his 2006 No. 1 single This Is Why I’m Hot
Rapper Mims tokenized part of his royalties for his 2006 No. 1 single “This Is Why I’m Hot.” (Anotherblock)

Then there is the regulatory and legal ambiguity around crypto and NFTs, especially in the United States, which is the largest market for recorded music and home to the “Big Three” major record labels — Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group. (UMG is legally headquartered in the Netherlands but maintains its operational headquarters in California). For example, the question of whether NFTs can be considered securities in the U.S. is still up in the air.

“The law, in general, always lags behind new technology because new technology just moves a lot quicker,” attorney Lowenbraun states. “Over time, the courts will slowly get used to this new technology and come up with ways of crafting the law, or rather to use existing principles to figure out what the heck things mean in Web3. I have full confidence in that.”

She adds that while linking royalties to NFTs is an exciting idea, builders must tread carefully. “For anybody working in it now, it just means you’ve got to make some logical best guesstimates based on where existing law is now on where it should be going.”

“It’s still a little iffy depending on how you offer what you’re offering.”

The future is on-chain — potentially

The Promised Land may still be some way — with no easy path to get there. It would require music rights to be stored on-chain and royalties to be paid on-chain, both of which are technologically possible but don’t seem to be an immediate priority of anyone in the traditional industry. 

Many traditional music industry players have little interest in shaking up the current model, as its complex and confusing nature ultimately benefits them and their ability to make money at the expense of artists. As Bailey says, “They are making their bread and butter because it is complicated, you know?”

Outkast rapper Big Boi fractionalized part of his 2017 song Kill Jill
Outkast rapper Big Boi fractionalized part of his 2017 song “Kill Jill.” (Royal)

But true believers still think we’ll make it. Ljungberg believes that “in a couple of years, it’s not unlikely, in my view at least, that Spotify will pay out royalties directly on-chain and get distributed automatically to all the parties that are involved since that’s a lot more efficient way of doing it.” 

According to Blau, it’s just a matter of patience:

“People don’t understand it yet. Any nascent technology just takes time to reduce friction.”

Jonathan DeYoung

Jonathan DeYoung is the senior copy editor at Cointelegraph. He is interested in how decentralized technologies can strengthen communities, and the ways blockchain can empower independent artists and creators. In his free time, Jonathan raps and produces under the name “MADic.”

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Bitcoin treasury firms driving $200T hyperbitcoinization — Adam Back

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Bitcoin treasury firms driving 0T hyperbitcoinization — Adam Back

Bitcoin treasury firms driving 0T hyperbitcoinization — Adam Back

Investment firms with Bitcoin-focused treasuries are front-running global Bitcoin adoption, which may see the world’s first cryptocurrency soar to a $200 trillion market capitalization in the coming decade.

Institutions and governments worldwide are starting to recognize the unique monetary properties of Bitcoin (BTC), according to Adam Back, co-founder and CEO of Blockstream and the inventor of Hashcash.

“$MSTR and other treasury companies are an arbitrage of the dislocation between the bitcoin future and todays fiat world,” Back wrote in an April 26 X post.

“A sustainable and scalable $100-$200 trillion trade front-running hyperbitcoinization. scalable enough for most big listed companies to move to btc treasury,” he added.

Hyperbitcoinization refers to the theoretical future where Bitcoin soars to become the largest global currency, replacing fiat money due to its inflationary economics and growing distrust in the legacy financial system.

Bitcoin treasury firms driving $200T hyperbitcoinization — Adam Back
Source: Adam Back

Related: Crypto sentiment recovers, but weekend liquidity risks remain

Bitcoin’s price outpacing fiat money inflation remains the main driver of global hyperbitcoinization, Back said, adding:

“Some people think treasury strategy is a temporary glitch. i’m saying no it’s a logical and sustainable arbitrage. but not for ever, the driver is bitcoin price going up over 4 year periods faster than interest and inflation.”

Back’s comments come nearly two months after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to establish a national Bitcoin reserve from BTC forfeited in government criminal cases.

Related: Serbia’s Prince Filip says Bitcoin is being stifled, expects huge rally

Global firms continue Bitcoin accumulation

Continued Bitcoin investments from the likes of Strategy, the largest corporate Bitcoin holder, may inspire more global firms to follow suit.

Strategy’s approach is proving to be lucrative, with the firm’s Bitcoin treasury generating over $5.1 billion worth of profit since the beginning of 2025, according to Strategy’s co-founder, Michael Saylor.

Bitcoin treasury firms driving $200T hyperbitcoinization — Adam Back
Source: Michael Saylor

Japanese investment firm Metaplanet, also known as “Asia’s MicroStrategy,”  adopted a similar strategy, since surpassing 5,000 BTC in total holdings on April 24, Cointelegraph reported.

As Asia’s largest corporate Bitcoin holder, Metaplanet plans to acquire 21,000 BTC by 2026.

US financial institutions may also have more confidence in adopting Bitcoin after the US Federal Reserve withdrew its 2022 guidance discouraging banks from engaging with cryptocurrency. “Banks are now free to begin supporting Bitcoin,” Saylor said in response to the guidance withdrawal.

“Banks will now be supervised through normal processes, signaling a more open regulatory environment for digital asset integration,” Nexo dispatch analyst Iliya Kalchev told Cointelegraph.

Magazine: Altcoin season to hit in Q2? Mantra’s plan to win trust: Hodler’s Digest, April 13 – 19

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US crypto rules like ‘floor is lava’ game without lights — Hester Peirce

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<div>US crypto rules like 'floor is lava' game without lights — Hester Peirce</div>

<div>US crypto rules like 'floor is lava' game without lights — Hester Peirce</div>

SEC Commissioner and head of the crypto task force, Hester Peirce, says US financial firms are navigating crypto in a way that’s similar to playing the children’s game “the floor is lava,” but in the dark.

“It is time that we find a way to end this game. We need to turn on the lights and build some walkways over the lava pit,” Peirce said at the SEC “Know Your Custodian” roundtable event on April 25.

The lava is crypto, says Peirce

Peirce explained that SEC registrants are forced to approach crypto-related activities like “the floor is lava,” where the aim is to jump from one piece of furniture to the next without touching the ground, except here, touching crypto directly is the lava.

“A D.C. version of this game is our regulatory approach to crypto assets, and crypto asset custody in particular,” she said.

Peirce said that, much like in the game, firms wanting to engage with crypto must avoid directly holding it due to unclear regulatory rules. “To engage in crypto-related activities, SEC-registrants have had to hop from one poorly illuminated regulatory space to the next, all while ensuring that they never touch any crypto asset,” Peirce said.

Cryptocurrencies, SEC, United States
Source: US Securities and Exchange Commission

Peirce said that investment advisers are often unsure which crypto assets qualify as securities, what entities count as qualified custodians, and whether “exercising staking or voting rights” could trigger custody violations.

“The twist in the regulatory version is that it is largely played in the dark: burning legal lava and no lamps to illuminate the way.”

Peirce also said that a broker or ATS that cannot custody or manage crypto assets will struggle to facilitate trading, making it unlikely for a “robust market” to develop.

Echoing a similar sentiment, SEC Commissioner Mark Uyeda said at the event that as more SEC registrants work with crypto assets, it’s essential that they have access to custodial options that meet legal and regulatory requirements.

Uyeda said the agency should consider letting advisers use “state-chartered limited-purpose trust companies” with the authority to hold crypto assets as qualified custodians.

Related: Blockchain needs regulation, scalability to close AI hiring gap

Meanwhile, the recently sworn-in chair of the SEC, Paul Atkins, said that he expected “huge benefits” from blockchain technology through efficiency, risk mitigation, transparency, and cutting costs.

He reiterated that among his goals at the SEC would be to facilitate “clear regulatory rules of the road” for digital assets, hinting that the agency under former chair Gary Gensler had contributed to market and regulatory uncertainty.

“I look forward to engaging with market participants and working with colleagues in President Trump’s administration and Congress to establish a rational fit-for-purpose framework for crypto assets,” said Atkins.

Magazine: Bitcoin $100K hopes on ice, SBF’s mysterious prison move: Hodler’s Digest, April 19 – 25

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Labour and Reform in battle for Runcorn by-election seat – but disillusionment could be eventual winner

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Labour and Reform in battle for Runcorn by-election seat - but disillusionment could be eventual winner

On the banks of the Mersey, Runcorn and Helsby is a more complicated political picture than the apparent Labour heartland that first presents itself.

Yes, there are industrial and manufacturing areas – an old town that’s fallen victim to out-of-town shopping, and an out-of-town shopping centre that’s fallen victim to Amazon.

But there are also more middle-class new town developments, as well as Tory-facing rural swathes.

Space Café director Marie Moss says a sense of community has faded
Image:
Space Cafe director Marie Moss says a sense of community has faded

One thing this area does mirror with many across the country, though, is a fed-up electorate with little confidence that politics can work for them.

In the Space Cafe in Runcorn Old Town, its director Marie Moss says many in the region remember a time when a sense of community was more acute.

“People were very proud of their town… and that’s why people get upset and emotional as they remember that,” she says.

It’s this feeling of disenfranchisement and nostalgia-tinged yearning for the past that Reform UK is trading off in its targeting of traditional Labour voters here.

More on Liverpool

Party leader Nigel Farage features heavily on leaflets in these parts, alongside spikey messaging around migration, law and order, and Labour’s record in government so far.

Runcorn 2024 result
Image:
Runcorn 2024 result

Taxi driver Mike Holland hears frequent worries about that record from those riding in the back of his cab.

A Labour voter for decades, he says locals were “made up” at last year’s election result but have been “astonished” since then, with benefit changes a common topic of concern.

“Getting a taxi is two things, it’s either a luxury or a necessity… the necessity people are the disabled people… and a lot of the old dears are so stressed and worried about their disability allowance and whether they are going to get it or not get it,” he says.

But will that mean straight switchers to Reform UK?

Taxi driver Mike Holland has voted for Labour for decades, but is looking at the Liberal Democrats and Greens, or may not vote
Image:
Taxi driver Mike Holland has voted for Labour for decades, but is now looking at the Lib Dems and Greens – or may not vote at all

Mike says he agrees with some of what the party is offering but thinks a lot of people are put off by Mr Farage.

He’s now looking at the Liberal Democrats and Greens, both of whom have put up local politicians as candidates.

Or, Mike says, he may just not vote at all.

It’s in places like Runcorn town that some of the political contradictions within Reform UK reveal themselves more clearly.

Many here say they were brought up being told to never vote Tory.

And yet, Reform, chasing their support, has chosen a former Conservative councillor as its candidate.

It’s no surprise Labour has been trialling attack lines in this campaign, painting Mr Farage’s party as “failed Tories”.

As a response to this, look no further than Reform’s recent nod to the left on industrialisation and public ownership.

👉 Click here to listen to Electoral Dysfunction on your podcast app 👈

Read more:
Tough test for Labour after MP quits
MP jailed for late-night brawl
Local elections could re-shape politics

But head 15 minutes south from Runcorn docks, and this by-election campaign changes.

Rural areas like Frodsham and Helsby have, in the past, tended towards the Tories.

The Conservatives, of course, have a candidate in this vote, one who stood in a neighbouring constituency last year.

But Reform is now making a hard play for their supporters in these parts, with a softer message compared to the one being put out in urban areas – an attempt to reassure those anxious about too much political revolution coming to their privet-lined streets.

Labour, meanwhile, is actively trying to mobilise the anti-Farage vote by presenting their candidate – another local councillor – as the only person who can stop Reform.

Nadine Tan is concerned about division and anger in the community
Image:
Makeup artist Nadine Tan is concerned about division and anger in the community

The pitch here is aimed at voters like Frodsham makeup artist Nadine Tan, who are worried about division and anger in the community.

“I think they need to kind of come together and stop trying to divide everyone,” she says.

But like Mike the taxi driver five miles north, disillusionment could be the eventual winner as Nadine says, despite the “thousands of leaflets” through her door, she still thinks “they all say the same thing”.

One factor that doesn’t seem to be swinging too many votes, though, is the insalubrious circumstances in which the area’s former Labour MP left office.

Suspended Labour MP Mike Amesbury walks outside Chester Magistrates Court.
Pic: Reuters
Image:
Labour MP Mike Amesbury was convicted of punching a man in the street. Pic: Reuters

Mike Amesbury stepped down after being convicted of repeatedly punching a constituent in a late-night brawl outside a pub.

But across the patch, many praise their ex-MP’s local efforts, while also saying he was “very silly” to have acted in the way he did.

That may be putting it mildly.

But it’s hard to find much more agreement ahead of Thursday’s vote.

A constituency still hungry for change, but unsure as to who can deliver it.

Full list of candidates, Runcorn and Helsby by-election:

Catherine Anne Blaiklock – English Democrats
Dan Clarke – Liberal Party
Chris Copeman – Green Party
Paul Duffy – Liberal Democrats
Peter Ford – Workers Party
Howling Laud Hope – Monster Raving Loony Party
Sean Houlston – Conservatives
Jason Philip Hughes – Volt UK
Alan McKie – Independent
Graham Harry Moore – English Constitution Party
Paul Andrew Murphy – Social Democratic Party
Sarah Pochin – Reform UK
Karen Shore – Labour
John Stevens – Rejoin EU
Michael Williams – Independent

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