Music streaming service Feedbands says it’s built a new music economy on top of Bitcoin that pays artists more per stream than Spotify.

The company, which was established six years ago, says musicians and listeners can earn Bitcoin just by using the site.

“Feedbands’ new platform is the first of its kind to pay artists a streaming royalty in Bitcoin, at a fixed rate over twice what Spotify pays per stream,” the company told Micky.

“Feedbands also pays members in Bitcoin for streaming and sharing the music they love.”

In addition to the pay-per-stream feature, Feedbands says both artists and listeners can earn Bitcoin through a referral system.

When someone signs up with a unique referral link, the user accrues Bitcoin on every qualified stream for the lifetime of the scouted account.

How do the Bitcoin payments work?

At the moment, Feedbands is paying out Bitcoin at thresholds set by the user, but they are beta testing the Lightning Network to make instant payments to users and artists.

“We’re just now experimenting with the lightning network, which will allow us to make streaming royalty payments instantly and at near-zero cost,” said Feedbands Founder and CEO Graham Langdon.

“The Lightning Network is ideally suited for allowing Bitcoin to power economies that need to make instant micropayments. It really is perfect payment technology for the music streaming industry.”

Unique product

Since its launch in 2013, Feedbands has worked exclusively with independent artists, rather than established stars.

“Spotify is where you go to listen to music you already know and love,” said Mr Langdon.

“Feedbands is the platform where you go to discover artists you don’t know yet.”

Fighting climate change

Feedbands says it has partnered with ‘Trees for the Future’ to plant one tree for every 100 qualified user streams, and offers a verification link so users can ensure that their choice to stream on Feedbands directly translates into more trees planted each month.

“There is a common misconception that Bitcoin is environmentally unfriendly,” says Langdon.

“A recent study showed that nearly 80% of Bitcoin’s energy comes from renewable resources.

“We want to create a working use case not only for Bitcoin to power the economic underpinnings of an entire industry like music streaming, but also to demonstrate that it can help improve the environment by making it simple for users to have a positive impact.

“We’re past the point where any company can look the other way on climate change. We’ve built our entire platform as a mechanism to fight it in the way that we can, utilising Bitcoin as a powerful economic incentive.”