How data ownership redefines the relationship between artists and fans
Over the course of the past two decades, Grammy Award-winning DJ, André Allen Anjos (also known as RAC) has noticed a growing trend.
"There's been a trend since 2005 in the MySpace era, and all of that has been a trend towards sovereignty of an artist, of putting the artists on top," he says.
RAC is an advisor to Audius — a decentralized music streaming platform that raised $5 million last September from big names including Coinbase Ventures and Pantera Capital, along with popular artists such as Jason Derulo and Katy Perry.
In this episode of The Scoop, RAC and Audius Co-Founder and CEO Roneil Rumburg examine the limitations of centralized music streaming platforms and explain how data ownership in web3 allows artists to redefine their relationship to their fans.
Rumburg argues that centralized streaming platforms prevent artists from establishing a direct connection with their fanbase.
"There shouldn't be this sense of 'platform lock-in' that we have today on Spotify or places like that where, as a creator, you don't really know who your fans are, and you don't have the ability to port that fan base between experiences."
RAC has first-hand experience with this problem: while the DJ has 5.5 million followers on SoundCloud, his fanbase is "locked" into the platform. Artists "don't own that connection in any way," he says.
Audius is designed to avoid that, according to Rumburg.
"Our company could go away tomorrow, and all of this would keep working… From the artist's perspective, there's no lock in here. You can take your following and your data that you have here and use it anywhere else."
Episode 76 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block's Frank Chaparro, Audius Co-Founder Roneil Rumburg and Grammy award winning DJ and Audius Advisor, RAC.
Listen below, and subscribe to The Scoop on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you listen to podcasts. Email feedback and revision requests to podcast@theblockcrypto.com.
This episode is brought to you by our sponsors Chainalysis & IWC Schaffhausen
About Chainalysis
Chainalysis is the leading blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 60 countries. Backed by Accel, Addition, Benchmark, Coatue, Paradigm, Ribbit, and other leading firms in venture capital, Chainalysis builds trust in blockchains to promote more financial freedom with less risk. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com.
About IWC Schaffhausen
IWC Schaffhausen is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Known for its unique engineering approach to watchmaking, IWC combines the best of human craftsmanship and creativity with cutting-edge technology and processes. With collections like the Portugieser and the Pilot’s Watches, the brand covers the whole spectrum from elegant timepieces to sports watches. For more information, visit IWC.com
How Crypto Streaming Service Audius Hit Six Million Monthly Active Users - Ep.270
Audius, a blockchain native music streaming platform, hit six million monthly active users in August and announced a partnership with TikTok. Roneil Rumburg, co-founder and CEO of Audius, talks about how Audius works, AUDIO tokenomics, the give and take of decentralization, and more. Show highlights:
what problems Audius is solving for creators
how artists are utilizing crypto to connect with fans
how the crypto components of Audius fit together
what three utilities AUDIO, the native token of Audius, offers holders
why Audius requires over $500K in AUDIO tokens to run a node
why AUDIO’s inflation rate is higher than other popular tokens like Ethereum or Bitcoin
which portions of Audius are centralized versus decentralized
where the majority of Audius’s listens come from (hint: it’s not the app)
how Audius has created a “password” system to make blockchain technology easier to use for non-crypto natives
why Audius uses both Solana and Ethereum
how big-name artists like Diplo found their way onto Audius
how Audius makes it easier to upload music to TikTok
what’s next for Audius
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Episode Links
Roneil Rumburg
Twitter: https://twitter.com/roneilr
Audius
Website: https://audius.co/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AudiusProject
Whitepaper: https://whitepaper.audius.co/AudiusWhitepaper.pdf
Discord: https://discord.com/channels/557662127305785361/806017242734395413
What is Audius?
Decrypt: https://decrypt.co/resources/what-is-audius-the-decentralized-music-sharing-and-streaming-service
Messari: https://messari.io/asset/audius/profile
Coindesk: https://www.coindesk.com/business/2020/11/11/audius-has-big-numbers-by-crypto-standards-but-can-it-take-on-soundcloud/
TikTok + Audius Coverage
Audius: https://twitter.com/AudiusProject/status/1427299274325323779
Rolling Stone: https://www.rollingstone.com/pro/news/tiktok-sounds-streaming-crypto-blockchain-nfts-audius-1211699/
General Coverage
6M monthly users
https://twitter.com/AudiusProject/status/1433248161443684356
Moving to Solana (Oct 2020):
https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2020/10/29/audius-the-decentralized-spotify-is-moving-part-of-its-service-to-solana-blockchain/
5M monthly users (Aug 5):
https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2021/08/05/blockchain-based-music-streaming-service-audius-up-to-5m-monthly-users/
Copyright nightmare (The Verge 2019)
https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/9/20905384/audius-blockchain-music-streaming-service-copyright-infringement-piracy
NFTs (April 2021)
https://decrypt.co/65808/crypto-streaming-music-service-audius-nfts
Token Drop (Oct 2020):
https://medium.com/audius/welcome-audio-to-mainnet-409009bc130c
https://decrypt.co/46390/audius-distributes-crypto-rac-deadmau5-listeners
Youtube + Audius project
https://youtubetoaudius.com/
Music Racer:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/893030/Music_Racer/
Raises
https://musically.com/2020/10/26/decentralised-streaming-service-audius-raises-another-1-25m/
https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/08/audius/
https://musically.com/2020/08/03/blockchain-music-service-audius-raises-3-1m-funding-round/
Node requirements:
https://blog.audius.co/posts/a-primer-on-audio-staking#:~:text=All%20node%20operators%20are%20required,cost%20slightly%20more%20to%20operate.
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