Blockchain Enhancing Content Distribution

Major Improvements To Expect

One of the best proofs that blockchain is here to stay is that from being predominantly finance and cryptocurrency-related technology it is fast shifting to other spheres of economy and social life. One of the fields that can hugely benefit from what blockchain offers is copyrighted content creation and distribution.

Historically, this sphere has experienced a few massive shakes over the recent decades, with copyright legal base being so full of white spots still, throughout the world, and modern technologies that allow to infringe the copyright law practically with impunity, being introduced much faster than copyright protection mechanisms.

When copyrighted content was distributed through tangible media, things were easier. In late 90s and early 2000s, when Internet became faster and it didn’t take an hour to download an mp3 file, first p2p services like Napster emerged — and quickly ran into copyright infringement difficulties. With the growth of dot.com p2p platforms and free distribution of copyrighted content it became increasingly difficult for content creators to get profit. CD and DVD sales dropped dramatically, rent services went out of business. 2010s saw the arrival of legal distribution platforms. Almost 100 million users of Spotify, 35m iTunes subscribers and over 50 million Netflix watchers demonstrate, that people are finally willing to pay for virtually distributed content. But are content creators benefiting from it?

Centralized platforms are the sole gateway between content creators and consumers, the single point of control. Many content creators report that their licence and distribution fees are far from humane. Recent resonant cases and lawsuits, such as Duran Duran’s lost battle against Sony and Taylor Swift’s story with Spotify show that arbitrary ways of big corporations are harming content creators. Content consumers aren’t happy either, because this means their favourite artists aren’t on platforms they use and pay to. This is the most notable case with iTunes and its geographical licensing.

Enter the blockchain. The most important thing it does is eliminating middlemen. The other most important thing — cast-iron copyright proof. So, how does it work? Let’s look at a few examples.

DECENT, a recently-launched blockchain-based platform, whose ICO garnered $4mil in 2016, gives the ability for publishers to distribute their content globally through its decentralized, encrypted, secure and auditable platform. It aims to eliminate the middleman, thus bringing content directly from source to consumer.

OPUS, an Ethereum-powered startup, iis positioning itself as the world’s first decentralized music platform. It intends to address long-standing issues with copyright and ownership, using digital blueprints and timestamps According to its whitepaper, OPUS “tackles the issue of music ownership and sharing at an infrastructure and protocol level.”

Blockchain can also help raising the artists’ profit– by enabling artists to connect directly with fans and earn from revenues without cuts. A couple of years ago, famous British Singer Imogen Heap collaborated with Ujo to deliver tracks directly to fans, whilst accepting payments in cryptocurrency.

But this doesn’t have to be limited to single projects. The whole internet domain ecosystem for content creators is in the works. Currently, DotMusic, a music community applicant, is appealing for control of the .music gTLD. If the winning bidder does the right thing, individual .music domains will be handed to the corresponding artists and copyright holders, for instance, katieperry.music will be actually in the hands of Katie Perry. It would make a lot of sense to link a blockchain-enabled ready-for-business music registry to those URLs, adding a whole new dimension for music creatives to drive business toward themselves and their work.