The music industry is a tough place for artists. Spotify, Apple, and Ticketmaster hold a powerful position. We look at SingularDTV, TuneToken, GUTS + Viberate and their quest to disrupt the ecosystem.

On today's episode we'll be talking about the music: recorded music and concerts.

20 years ago, Napster and the MP3 crushed record labels and artist revenue.

With Spotify, the revenue model is finally recovering (slightly).

Still, iTunes, YouTube, Ticketmaster, and Live Nation control (monopolize?) the music and concert ticket industry.

Smart contracts can hold music rights information to ensure that artists, songwriters, producers, and everyone involved in the creation of a musical work get paid out correctly and efficiently.

Blockchain tech can help artists fund their projects.

We discuss:

RecordGram / TuneToken - a better system for royalty transparency for artists.

SingularDTV - tokenized ecosystem for artists

Viberate - smart contracts in the negotiation between musicians, booking agencies and event organizers

GUTS Tickets - an app for artists, venues, and fans

Check out Nick's high school band: The Unnatural Selections

Cover photo courtesy of Shutterstock.