We used to remind each other a lot in the early days following the launch of Musicoin that ‘community is king’. Crowdsourcing ideas and contributions would always bring far more value to the project than just the plans and abilities of five or six ‘core team’ members.

And so from logos and promotional materials to educational materials and sponsorship agreements, having that respect for the wisdom of the community enabled the Musicoin team to effectively bootstrap and hyper-leverage for an extended period, creating something of value without the use of conventional investment financing.

It worked well and the project was a success.

But that fuel of passion and enthusiasm would only go so far, and in order to grow and achieve and fund the next level of expansion and development, we would need to take that crowdsourcing approach to a new level as well.

Crowdfunding and The Value Token

Building something truly special, meaningful and valuable requires a whole lot more than just money and vision. To execute on what we wanted to achieve, it was going to require harnessing the interest and creative enthusiasm from a global pool of music enthusiasts.

It would require artists and listeners that were excited about the potentials of blockchain technology, and who would be the pioneers in applying it from within with a relatively new platform in the music industry.

But even still, just having the funding, artists and fans would not be nearly enough.

After all, we were not just planning to build an app or a cool blockchain-based music player. We were talking about building a new music economy — one that would respect and connect the contributions of everyone involved in a meaningful and appropriate way.

In order to capture the all the inherent synergies of diverse individuals with unique perspectives and objectives, we would need to have a quantum approach. In this new music economy, every participant could find — or better yet, invent his or her own role and/or contribution.

It would not be enough to raise money and then expect to provide an acceptable return to investors who would do little more than check on the share price or wait for a dividend check. Doing it that way would require a huge amount of funding and a long drawn-out period of working and building before eventually even getting close to earning a decent return.

There had to be a better way. And there was!

Instead of asking people to invest, we wanted to invite them to pre-buy. Primarily we are not looking for passive investors/observers, moreso active participants.

We are looking for artists, creators, and listeners who will utilize the industry-shifting tools and features we are building to enable a massive network of partnerships based on simple smart contracts that will quickly distribute content and remunerate everyone involved in an immediate, appropriate and transparent way.

In particular, it is the entrepreneurs we look to; the ones who have distribution networks or want to be involved in building them. We want to work with those who love to share what they enjoy and support their favourite songs and artists. We want to deliver to them an environment in which they can contract with any music rights holder on the planet and earn a revenue share of any song that they are able to have sent to a listener’s speakers.

Although the Musiconomi team has already envisioned numerous features and tools that will be made available to users on the platform, we are quite certain that the contributions and the imagination of the community will far surpass those of the development team over the coming months and years. The initial ones from the team are just a highlighted dozen or so that will get the ball rolling.

In order to achieve the kind of explosive growth and success that we always knew was possible in those early days with Musicoin, we would need a unique structure and proposition. We would need a mechanism that empowers on multiple levels, and yet requires very little in the way of operating costs, and that involves an absolute minimum of friction.

We would need a mechanism that enables access, and facilitates the growth of infinite sharing contracts to distribute content with built-in payment systems that would eliminate the need for anything resembling a conventional accounting system.

And so the Musiconomi token (MCI) was conceived as part of a system that will enable holders to access a variety of features and tools — not by exchanging it, but simply by locking it up. As long as the prerequisite amount of tokens are locked in a holding account, tools and features enabling the holder to contract with content rights holders to receive a share of revenue are available. When those tokens are withdrawn or transferred, access to those contracts ceases, and pre-existing contracts would be closed.

We have already begun the development process for tools and features that enable things like streaming, DJ mixes, playlist sharing, track-backing, music blogging tools, merchandise and ticketing, and much more.

As we expand our team and close in on our next set of milestones, we will continue to focus on building community, and creating a massive network of value that will include hundreds of advisors, ambassadors and strategic partners, thousands of entrepreneurs, and millions of fans and users.

Musicoin was the beginning where we tested the technology and laid the groundwork for these ideas to take shape.

Musiconomi is the evolution, where we open the doors to enable the makers to do their thing, and be the builders of a new music economy that brings value back to music and most importantly, to the people who create it.