The Cannes Story — Part 2

MEDIA Protocol at the Digital Future Council Villa

What Happened Next?

That first day with its friendly, ice-breaking dinner, brought a buzz of excitement to the rest of the event. Every discussion felt more open, more questions were asked and readily answered. It was a genuinely wide-open forum for everyone to contribute.

Future Of Content Ownership

I (CEO, James), ran a session, along with Stacey Tang of Sony Music, discussing the question: “What does the future of content ownership look like?”

Together we broke down the creative process, looking specifically at how content is created, and how the artist then ends up holding something of value.

The biggest discussion point? How the artist so often didn’t get the full value of their work, and how the current model has been failing them. A shared frustration, of how best to ensure the creator would receive that value, going forward. Importantly, we discussed how existing actors in the industry are eager to implement change, and how committed they are to making sure that true ownership is understood. After all, a true creative needs to focus on making things, and not building blockchain solutions!

Some Room In The Middle

That said, while some artists will dive right in, others simply don’t want to deal with the other parts of the business. There is a reason for labels and agents being part of the model.

Blockchain and smart contracts can bring more clarity to these relationships, and help emerging artists make more informed decisions. While there might still be middlemen, the actions they take will be based on transparent, available information.

Early Agreement

As a result, host of different brands found themselves in agreement for the first time. They didn’t want to demonise centralised entities and companies, because the intention there wasn’t always greed, or to attempt to own everything. It became a clear case of how to change the processes, so that creators didn’t lose out to huge corporate bodies.

This evolved into a forum to show what blockchain could do. Blockchain could bring real improvements, for artists and creators in particular. The decentralised, democratic model would bring fairness into the process, and protect the original owners of content.

Benefits Of Blockchain

As more ideas were exchanged, brands became eager to hear how blockchain could look after artists and also improve the existing value chain. An important distinction was made: namely that blockchain is part of a solution to bringing clarity to the industry and not blowing it up and starting again.

Where some had seen new technology as a threat previously, now it was much more clear — blockchain was here to help.

Building relationships is easier with a clear record of everything that’s happening — one that’s mutually accessible.

Blockchain can also help with automating a large percentage of payments and other transactions, using small, particular smart contracts. With careful parameters set on the them, this can really reduce the distraction for artists. They can be confident the mechanics of their deals are running smoothly.

There’s also a desire for the relationship between creator and consumer to be this transparent, and this desire crosses over into every industry. More and more great ideas are going to come out of harnessing blockchain into creative agreements.

Big Event, Big Results

By the end of these sessions, genuine collaboration was cropping up in every corner. Crossover ideas, new suggestions, and a lot of enthusiasm for working together going forward. It was a breakthrough for everyone to realise they were mostly trying to solve the same problems, and were more likely to do so together.

The industry perception of blockchain had changed — in most cases for good.

We can’t wait to see what happens going forward!

In case you missed it, read Part 1 of The Cannes Story.

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