Projects listed above are somehow active.

However, it is really hard to reveal which of the existing music blockchain projects is likely to be a failure or already dead. Only a part of the forty studied projects seems to be alive… So far… There are a lot of projects and initiatives, which disappeared without a trace after 2017 ICO boom or on a long-drawn-out bear market in 2018.

To list the most interesting of them briefly:

MediaChain was one of the first musical blockchain projects, a peer-to-peer, blockchain database for sharing information across different applications and organizations. In addition to organizing open-source information by issuing unique identifiers for each piece of information, MediaChain also worked with artists to ensure they are paid fairly. The company issued smart contracts with musicians that directly state their royalty stipulations without the hassle of confusing third parties or contingencies. Music giant Spotify acquired MediaChain in 2017 to help solve royalty payment and rights holders issues within the music industry. Mediachain Twitter and blog are not active since 2017, but commits on their GitHub appears from time to time.

Blockpool is a blockchain firm that was founded to create custom code, offer consulting services and help integrate ledger technology into a business’s current systems. In addition to its work in other industries, Blockpool was to create digital tokens, formulate smart music contracts and track licensing and intellectual property rights for the music industry. The company was to help musicians implement blockchain throughout the whole production, distribution and management process. In 2017 record label, One Little Indian, partnered with Blockpool to release European musician Bjork’s Utopia album. Blockpool implemented blockchain to provide digital currency incentives and to manage and distribute royalties. But still there no more information on project development.

Blokur is to be a source for global publishing data for management and monetization of music. Blokur team said that they use both AI and blockchain to combine different sources of rights data in one database. The blockchain then allows music publishers to catalog their work for the community to see and unanimously approve. The company’s AI used to resolve any source disputes by scanning pertinent origination information to make sure the correct artists receive payments. But there is no more information. Blokur remains generally in “stealth” mode and is not likely to be more visible soon. Their GitHub page is almost empty. Last year they had announced a collaboration with Massive Attack to track remix rights on the blockchain.

On April the team helped Universal Music Group brands team with music publishing clearances for their Kinder Joy playlist campaign, live across Europe for Easter. See more info on their Twitter.

MusicLife is to be a blockchain-based music nonprofit platform that focuses on limiting piracy and establishing a new payment method for artists. Each song an artist uploads on the MusicLife ecosystem generates a MusicToken (MSCT). After 50,000 streams, an artist gains full music rights and can make his or her songs publicly tradable. The MSCT token initially gives musicians 100% share of a song’s income each day after accounting for listens and users that purchased the music. Like a stock market, prices of songs are based on the number of listeners, depth of listening and user activity. MusicLife recently developed a media app called Echo that has more than 30 million users. Echo users can earn tokens to make purchases in the MusicLife ecosystem by interacting with the app. Check out their 2019 Roadmap. The project looks promising but still, there is almost no activity on their GitHub and Twitter since 2018.

However, at the beginning of July, MusicLife launched the IEO on BISS Exchange and on July 26th, the team released MusicLife weekly update:

Musiconomi used to be a streaming platform with tokenized payments that offers exclusive access to partner artists. Built on the Blockchain, Musiconomi (MCI) was designed to make this type of system possible. The suite of Musiconomi products was to enable complete control over user music experience. Some features included: designing your own playlists, streaming radio, hiring your band, buying artist merchandise and live experiences, leasing studio space, and building your own branded token. All features used to be available to token holders, enabling them to generate and earn rewards and build their business. But as we reveal, this project seems to be dead since the summer of 2018.

Volareo intended to be a portable IoT speaker that integrates with existing blockchain-based streaming services to provide disintermediated payments directly to artists with digital currency. Still, there is no relevant and updated information on the project.

VOISE is a blockchain-powered anonymous decentralized platform with personalized token based on Ethereum’s smart contract ecosystem for transactions. VOISE is a cryptocurrency-powered solution for the music industry that allows artists to monetize their work in a collaborative P2P marketplace. Artists upload their content, the platform recommends music based on a user’s preferences and users pay the artists (who receive almost 100% of the revenue) for their music. VOISE artists are also able to set their own prices, offer free sample tracks and even seek support from the music community. Currently, the platform is not finished and only supports the sale of music and not subscription service but many other options are yet to come after the platform release. This February the team released Android app, iOS — coming soon. You can read their 2019 Roadmap here. Follow them on Twitter with about 16 thousand followers.

Lava was hoping to build a blockchain-integrated ticketing platform that mitigates scalping and directly connects events with their audiences. But since 2016 there is no activity in this project.