I'm coming at this from a musicians POV, as opposed to an investor. I'm getting my head round blockchain apps/cryptocurrencies, but I don't think I'll ever become a serious investor - my head just isn't wired that way. I can find my way round an exchange to trade, and that'll do me for now (though I suspect it'll slowly assimilate me into the investment mindset 😉 )
So I have this 'thing' that Spotify simply ain't for small, indie artists like me - regardless of what the business says.
As such, I'm starting to think about an alternative approach for artist like me to exist. (Actually that sounds a bit grand - I just think there's another way to do things, that may be enough for a lot of small artists not needing to live off the proceeds of their art)
As part of that, I'm on the lookout for other platforms, and obviously platforms in this Brave New World like Audius and Emanate may be part of the answer using cryptocurrencies (as we all want to make a bit of money, if only to cover 'running costs')
Hive itself is in the mix as well, obviously.
Anyway - there's a few things with Audius that niggle - no clear statement on how $AUDIO can be earned (or rather, at what rates - it's obvious they'll pay something for a stream, but what?), and what it can be used for (the 'airdrop' was a one off, apparently). Most folk hitting their Discord right now seem to be looking at ways of converting $AUDIO to fiat, and/or seeing how that can be done in the future. I'm a bit more relaxed than that. I'd be interested in seeing how they may let me use the token in the ecosystem, buying services from them or 3rd parties. Emanate are moving in that space as well - and I think it may have legs. These token could have some real value to artists, other than immediately dumping to fiat.
I did get a bit aerated when I found out the API will allow anyone to stream any track. i.e. They give your music away. Again, it's not clear if a play through the API counts as a stream (but I assume it would). Or, possibly more to the point, if a developer uses your music in an app that makes $$$, how the artist gets a fair share of that as a contributor.
But on reflection, it's not a great deal different from, for example, the SoundCloud API, so 🤷♂...
But, on the whole, I like it. I love the 'community owned' aspect with the promise of $AUDIO holders being able to guide and influence the growth - but I'm fascinated to see how they implement that. I like their vision, and there's some intersting things in the White Paper (but isn't there always? Remains to be seen what will actually make it). They have a solid platform (performance blips aside). To a layman like me they seem to have solid backing from folk who should know what they are doing.
And I've found some decent music on it.
So yeah, we'll keep an eye on this one, I think...
And, you get no points for being polite in this game, so I'll just leave this link here...
Ah, Mr G, was thinking this would grab your attention!
I don't even think Spotify is for the major artists as they only get a fraction of streaming revenue anyway once it's been filtered from Spotify to labels to the artists and so for folks like us with a small following, streaming royalties don't really count for much. Which is why I've been banging the crypto drum ever since I got in to it as it does offer a real opportunity in so many ways to reach goals that one thought was unattainable.
Spotify as well has pretty much commoditised music so it would be foolish in my opinion not to explore other options like we are doing now. I'd rather be on a smaller platform with a dedicated community that wants its userbase to succeed and use Spotify as a potential "lucky hit" to get on the editorial playlists.
Like you say, seems the general consensus on these apps from the Discord is "when cash out", which is to be expected, seems crypto is basically hopping from one shiny to the next but making a use case of the token and staking like on HIVE for a return or unlocking perks or downloading a track exclusively on the site will give it some buying demand.
I've learned that whitepapers are one thing, final product and delivery is something else but if they have the big investors backing them then it might well be a rare gem that delivers...
My first impressions of the site from just quickly browsing the other day were positive, even without an account - still not 100% I'll upload my music there but we shall see.
!ENGAGE 30
ENGAGEtokens.