In recent years, the music industry has been in the limelight quite a lot and that too, for all the wrong reasons. With lawsuits being served left and right, it is pretty clear that a lot goes on behind the scenes in the industry, than just dance moves and jazzy tunes.

Lets take scroll back a couple of years shall we? Taylor Swift, arguably the most powerful 24-year-old in the music industry, boycotted Spotify. She decided to remove her entire back catalog from the music-streaming site, which is quite possibly the biggest growing source of music consumption. One of the reasons for Swifts rocky relationship with the site is that, artists receive between just $0.006 and $0.0084 per song play. Writing in the Wall Street Journal in July this year, the singer said:

Music is art, and art is important and rare. Important, rare things are valuable. Valuable things should be paid for. It’s my opinion that music should not be free, and my prediction is that individual artists and their labels will someday decide what an album’s price point is. I hope they don’t underestimate themselves or undervalue their art.

She is not the first artist to withdraw music from Spotify. Radiohead’s Thom Yorke called for a boycott of the service over unfair payment practices, removing all his solo projects from the site. The Beatles, AC/DC and The Black Keys are also not available to stream on Spotify.

Looking at all the star-studded big names going through what almost every artist faces, it is pretty clear that the growth of the Internet has artists at a disadvantage. Think about it for a moment–how much do you think you contribute to the artist when you download a music file for free?

Well, blockchain tech might be the solution to this problem. A solution that will prove to be fruitful for the, the consumer and the artist, a solution that goes by the name of Musicoin. According to its whitepaper,

Musicoin is a decentralized platform that leverages the power of blockchain technology in empowering musicians to take full ownership of their content and finances.

The platform is blockchain powered which automatically means that it harbors a decentralized, peer-to-peer, platform, thus eliminating the middleman. And just like Bitcoin or Ethereum, Musicoin claims to be secure and transparent.

Benefits of Musicoin

First of all, unlike previous file sharing networks, Musicoin does not involve a third party in the scene. Which means that the entire amount raised against the music, goes in the artists pocket. The platform ensures that the contributors get their fair share by using an economic model known as the Universal Basic Income (UBI). This model is is equipped to offer a standard rate which is unbiased and does not depend on its market value and is generally higher than that of any other conventional streaming platforms.

A UBI pool is created to secure musicians’ income from PPP on the platform, at a fixed rate that is fair, uninfluenced by market forces and higher than that of any other competing streaming platforms. This is to boost the influx of content from musicians as well as to make streaming music free for listeners.

The currency

The team behind Musicoin designed a global digital currency, MUSIC, in order to the music-related businesses. The tokens are generated via mining. And they are split into two sections. One section that consists of 250 coins is set for the miners and the remaining 64 coins go to the common UBI pool.

Furthermore, musicians on the platform have the power to set their own rates and can customize how payment is distributed among the members who were involved in the creation process.

Musicoin & community

There are some artists that you have probably not heard of before Musicoin. Some of these artists seem to have only released their music exclusively on the platform.

Pain United with Passion

The genre of Pain United with Passion is inspiring hip-hop with a dash of purpose. They demonstrated another use of the platform which is, raising money for charities through their #FOOD4U campaign.

Fuzzy Heady

Fuzz Heady makes “Psychedelic music that finds its way somewhere between Hip-hop, Stoner Rock, and electronic bass music.” Fuzzy Heady uses the Musicoin platform as one big collaborative session in finding vocalists, rappers, and musicians to perform on his tracks. He then mixes it all up and splits all the profit with everyone involved.

DJ Deadly Buda

He is the DJ to have the first DJ mix on blockchain. He accepts Musicoins as a form of payment for his merchandise and magazine subscriptions.