The origin story of SingularDTV as told by CEO Zach LeBeau goes back to when he first learned about "Bowie Bonds" enabling investors to take stakes in the long-term royalties for David Bowie's music. He had wished that the process could be democratized and support small investments. Then the arrival of distributed blockchain technology made it possible to make his dream a reality.

Relying on the Ethereum platform for its blockchain ledgers, SingularDTV has set up an ecosystem of modules to allow artists such as New York DJ Gramatik to tokenize their work. "This is something artists have been dreaming about since the beginning of time, to be free of gatekeepers," he told Business Insider, "and to communicate freely — and even be in a business relationship — directly with their fans." On Nov. 9 Gramatik will use SingularDTV to launch 100 million GRMTK tokens.

Peer-to-peer distributed payments could revolutionize music by making artists more self-reliant. By joining the financial interests of artists with their most motivated fans, this could give "fan base" a whole new fiscal meaning.

Database: ASCAP, BMI Team On Data Transparency