You've been streaming music for years. You've made playlists. You've discovered artists before they blew up. You've been the person who told everyone about them first.
And what did you get for it? A receipt from Spotify.
Meanwhile, the algorithm decided who else got to hear that artist. The label took its cut. The streaming platform took theirs. And the artist, the person you actually believed in, saw fractions of a cent per play.
BlockTunes is built to change that relationship entirely. Fans and artists on the same team, sharing the same economy, with no labels, no algorithms, and no gatekeepers deciding who wins.
It's not a concept. It's not a whitepaper. It's running right now at blocktunes.net.
We Are Back and Better Than Ever
For those that might not remember, we launched in 2022, right at the top of the NFT hype cycle and then the bottom fell out. It's taken a few years and a lot of tears to get back on our feet and finally get the project back in the direction we always dreamed of! The market has matured, most VC funded projects that never built it right in the first place are dead or on life support, but in the great words of Morpheous, WE ARE STILL HERE!
We've completely rebuilt Blocktunes from the ground up! Complete new direction, focus, and best of all, build on our own infrastructure! We are not trying to be like every other Hive based front end, so don't expect that! We do have our community features that are going to get bigger and better very soon (we have to leave something for later, haha). But our focus is and always will be, THE MUSIC! So for our marketing, don't expect us to be pushing Hive, we are pushing the artists and the music they are creating!
We are focused on building a music platform that is build on blockchain tech, not focused on the tech or tokens it's built on. This is the only way the industry moves forward. Our goal is to make it just a seamless entry for musicians and fans into the blockchain space! I mean nobody cares about the tech that browsers and email are built around, they just use it. We are going for that kind of feel, although we understand it will take time, but that's the direction we are going.
So enough with the nerd talk, what does that mean for the artists and fans, well, let's get into that.
For Fans: Own a Piece of the Music You Love
Every track on BlockTunes has up to 10 editions available. When you buy an edition, you own a verifiable piece of that track on-chain, not a collectible that sits in a wallet looking goofy, but an asset that pays you every time the track streams.
From the moment you hold an edition, every qualifying play generates $MUSIC tokens and HIVE, split automatically between the artist, their edition holders, BlockTunes, and the A&R rep who brought the artist in. No claiming required. No dashboard to check. The protocol handles it and the payouts land in your wallet.
The earlier you find an artist and buy their editions, the bigger your share of the holder pool. If they grow, your earnings grow with them.
A full breakdown of how edition ownership and streaming payouts work is coming in a dedicated post. The short version: find music you believe in, own a piece of it, and get paid every time someone else discovers it.
For Artists: Your Music, Your Rules, Your Revenue
Artists earn 50% of every streaming payout automatically, just for having their music on the platform. No label cut, no exclusivity agreements, no threshold you have to hit before you see money. Every qualifying stream pays out on-chain, in real time, publicly verifiable.
On top of the 50% artist cut, every edition of your track that you personally hold earns you a proportional share of the 40% holder pool. If you keep editions, you earn as both the artist and a holder simultaneously. The remaining 5% goes to the platform and 5% to your A&R rep. Oh, and we are not only issuing out MUSIC tokens for streaming, you get HIVE as well! This does come out of our treasury and is just a bonus that we are offering to give people easily sellable value, so that we can keep MUSIC flowing through the ecosystem as a utility token.
Getting started:
- Create a free account at app.blocktunes.net/signup
- Apply for the NFT minting whitelist
- Upload your audio and cover art, set your edition count and price, mint
- Start earning the moment someone listens
We're publishing a full post for artists that covers the minting process, revenue splits, and how to set your account up for maximum earnings. Stay tuned.
The AI Tools Suite
BlockTunes ships with a full AI tools suite built into the platform, no external accounts, no subscriptions, no API keys. Everything runs on hardware we own and operate. Only monthly payment is to our ISP and power company, which much of this system is powered by solar and batteries but backed by the grid.
AI Mastering takes your uploaded track and returns a professionally mastered version. You choose a reference style and the engine handles the rest. EQ, compression, stereo width, limiting are all automated and delivered as high quality WAV files.
Stem Separation splits a full mix into individual stems: vocals, bass, drums, guitar, piano, and other. Useful for remixing, for sampling, or for pulling your own parts back out of a finished mix.
AI Cover Art generates original artwork from a text prompt. Describe the mood, the aesthetic, the palette, and get multiple options back you can use directly on the platform.
LyricalGPT is a streaming songwriting assistant tuned for lyrics and song structure. It knows genre conventions, rhyme schemes, verse/chorus/bridge formats, and can co-write in real time as you type.
AI tools are purchased with $MUSIC credits. Every new account gets 10 free credits on signup to try everything out. A full breakdown of each tool and how to get the most out of them is coming in dedicated posts for each one.
We even have Harmony, our free to use Blocktunes expert AI assistant that can give you all the information you need about the platform, Hive, can actually see the Hive blockchain, and even submit bug report, feedback requests, and submit support tickets straight to the devs! She is a huge part of our platform and is only going to get better and better as we can build more infrastructure and wire her into different features! So on the app, just go click on the chat bubble to start a conversation!
The $MUSIC Token
$MUSIC is the native token of the BlockTunes ecosystem. No pre-mine. No team allocation. No tokens sold before launch. The $MUSIC token originally launched with the project on Hive-Engine in 2022 and has only issued just over 1.5 million tokens in that period of time. So we have plenty of room to run still.
$MUSIC is a Smart Media Token on Hive-Engine, which means it distributes the same way HIVE does, through community activity. Posting music-related content to the BlockTunes community earns $MUSIC author rewards. Upvoting great content earns curation rewards. Staking your $MUSIC earns approximately 9.59% APR in passive interest. The daily emission is split 81.2% to posting and curation and 18.8% to stakers.
On top of the SMT distribution, BlockTunes runs its own streaming reward layer. Every qualifying NFT stream mints 16 fresh $MUSIC and distributes it automatically to the artist, edition holders, BlockTunes, and the A&R rep. We are in the Genesis Era right now which is the highest streaming reward this platform will ever pay. Every two years it halves, similar to how Bitcoin operates. Early participants earn at the top of the curve. So don't wait, go mint some tunes and buy some editions!
$MUSIC is also deflationary. Every whitelist fee, every minting fee, and every AI credit purchase burns tokens permanently to @null. The more the platform grows, the more gets destroyed.
A full tokenomics post is coming that covers the SMT emission model, the streaming halving schedule, burn mechanics, and how to read the live supply data on-chain.
The A&R Program
If you know musicians who belong on BlockTunes, the A&R program pays you permanently for bringing them in. Share your referral link. When an artist signs up through it and mints their first track, you are locked in as their A&R rep on-chain.
5% of every streaming payout from their tracks comes to you automatically, on every play, forever, as long as they're on the platform. No tracking spreadsheets, no invoicing, no chasing payments. The protocol handles it.
There is no cap on how many artists you can refer. Every one you bring in is another stream of passive income tied directly to how well their music performs. A full post on the A&R program and how to build a referral income is coming.
Built on Infrastructure We Own
Every server running BlockTunes runs on hardware we own, in a facility we control, powered by solar and battery backup. No AWS, no Google Cloud, no Azure.
Our own IPFS node pins all NFT audio and artwork from here on (Note, all older mints are still hosted on the Tribaldex node). Our own image server handles every photo on the platform. We run full nodes for every crypto chain we support, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Dogecoin, Monero, so tip detection is instant with no third-party APIs in the chain. An in-house Hive RPC proxy routes and caches all Hive API traffic across multiple nodes with automatic failover, so the platform stays up even when public infrastructure has problems.
We are planning on building out machines for both a full hived and witness node, as well as a Hive-Engine node. But that will have to come when more funds come down the pipe. Everything so far is all bootstrapped by @thelogicaldude, so it' just whenever the funds are available. We are also working on writing a DHF funding proposal that is meant to help with this as well.
A full infrastructure post is coming that goes deep on every piece of the stack and why owning it matters.
So go play around with the platform! If you have any questions, see any bugs, or have any features you would like to see, go chat with Harmony and she'll get you pointed in the right direction or get you in touch with us directly on Discord through tickets and reports! On that note, go join our Discord server as well! Link is on the site in the footer!
We Are in the Genesis Era
The rewards are at their highest. The community is small. The opportunity is real.
Every section above has a full dedicated post coming that goes deeper down the Blocktunes rabbit hole. Follow @blocktunes on Hive so you don't miss them.
BlockTunes is built on the Hive blockchain and Hive-Engine. No crypto knowledge required to get started. Create your account, set up Smart Lock with a PIN, and you're in. Every new account gets 10 free AI credits on signup. If you get stuck, Harmony is there to help!
Built by @thelogicaldude (aka @groove-logic), who is a musician, sound engineer, and trainer himself. He built this for musicians and the people who love them. Entirely bootstrapped. No VC. No pre-sale. No exit strategy. PURE PASSION!
Posted using BlockTunes
This is looking cool. We have some great musicians on Hive so I expect they will be interested.
Hoping to expand beyond the current community as well and get some fresh blood onboard!
Posted using BlockTunes
Congratulations for the launch. Impressive product with lots of appealing features for artists and fans. Everybody is getting something on BlockTunes. Can't imagine such platform on other blockchain.
Posted using BlockTunes
It can't happen on other blockchains... Trust us, we tried, lol.
I've been using blocktunes lately but I was disappointed that to listen to the song you need to have an account as opposed to other musical project.
The listener has to have a Hive account logged in for the streaming payments to work properly because of the way it works with the blockchain and the other engines. We will take that feedback under advisement though and try to see if we can make something work.
Posted using BlockTunes
To explain a bit further, it all has to do with 2 things... RCs and abuse.
The streaming payments take RC and that comes from the user on the stream, so they have to have a Hive account.
Also, we have a cool down period for accounts so that there isn't streaming abuse. So basically an account can only have a stream paid out per song per 24 hours. Keeps people from gaming the system with bots.
We are actively trying to find a way to get around that for logged out users, but for now, it's how it has to work.
The only solution I have found right now is to treat it like iTunes where it gives a 30 second preview because that falls under the qualifying stream time. This could be a way to show a preview on the listen page, but require an account for full streaming.
Posted using BlockTunes
So, thanks to your feedback, we were at least able to figure out a way to give un-signed in users a 45 second preview. A qualifying stream is 1 minute, so it's just below and doesnt' get into the mess of things. When it finishes the preview it prompts them to login or sign up. Best we can do on this one.
Posted using BlockTunes
I have a thought for you ... there are a tremendous number of younger, newer, highly talented musicians who are locked out of the tools they need to ever get an AR rep ... they don't know how to bring an audience and revenue to the table, and they don't have access to mixing and mastering. There's BIG room for artist development here ... might be harder to get more established artists because of Hive's scale right now, but growing a farm team might just do the trick!
That's what we have built the platform for exactly. We have the tools to help them with the mastering, even lyrical generation and cover art. We are not focused on the big named artists, we are focused on trying to get the small guy. With Blocktunes, at least we have a built in community, albeit small, but still, it's a start.
Posted using BlockTunes
Wonderful!
Congratulations @blocktunes! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain And have been rewarded with New badge(s)
Your next target is to reach 500 comments.
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOP