100% - this really is the first time I’m seeing flocks of great developers graduate and instead of going to big tech, are working on blockchain technology. The next 5 years are going to be very exciting
Fascinating presentation. The thought of the web 2 music industry going down like the Titanic is like messianic. Rhyme unintended. Thank you for condensing a massive subject into 9 minutes with such clarity. And giving this old guitar player a reason to take another studious look at blockchain. Respect!
Big Z is one of the only music youtubers who are REAL. He doesn’t need to lie, he doesn’t need to talk about industry secrets, he just tells it how it is. Thank you Zach.
I'm writing an short 15pages essay for my studies (Media Technologie) and that helps a lot for getting an overview about the different projects. thank you for that!
Some problems I can see: - 0:04 The People that are making the big money like big mainstream artists still operate in the way it is in the michael jackson example. Blinding lights was produced by Max Martin and mixed and mastered by other Industry professionals. If an EDM artits makes a House Track and signs that to hexagon there is probabyl a closer split to that 50% split. - The problem I can see with the blockchain based music distribution platform is that users then would have to pay per stream. I think most consumers are not ready to pay for that. Consider how many people use the free version of spotify or use a share a family account with people that are not in their family. Great job on making the video and getting this info across
Back before royalty collection was digitised - actually how this came about is a very interesting story from the annals of rock n roll history, for another time. We used to have to wait two years plus to see royalty income from many territories.
They need to figure out a way to fix the NFT Metadata problem... and fast. Just agree upon a standardized set of rules so that your music in one NFT silo can work and be compatible with another music NFT silo... That way it can help foster adoption, rather than being another barrier to entry.
Wohoo.. good news. Thanks for spreading the word about theese techs. So tired of the low rates to artists from streaming services. It has really broken the music industri. Looking forward to the upcomming new solutions.
I’m excited to see how the space grows we are in the infancy of Web3 but the future is bright. I think it’s kind of difficult to consider certain contributors (mixing, mastering, production, writing etc) as middle men in the process of getting the music from artist to fan. Those parties seem to factor in to the artists operating cost imo. Also I’m not sure how much I’d pay to listen to an individual song on a per stream basis. I might have misunderstood your example, but that’s how it appeared. In any event, I’m definitely excited for more bright minds to attempt to solve the issues facing artists in this age. Dope breakdown overall 🤝
i agree. Not every artist is capable of mixing, recording, producing, or mastering. These engineers are essential; I wouldn't call them "middle men". Also I am an audio engineer (BS degree in audio production), as well as a DJ, Producer. and Musician. Only say that for full transparency.
Thanks, Big Z! This is one of the greatest explanations and advanced videos I’ve seen about this topic. please keep making more, we will greatly appreciate it.
One difficulty with blockchain is scaling: the current approach (mining) can't support enough transactions per second to handle all the streams. Something needs to change in the underlying blockchain technology before it becomes a viable means for large-scale music distribution.
The problem is that the average music-listeners don't want to use several different websites to listen to their favourite music - they want everything in one place when they create their playlists which totally makes sense. To make a shift happen we would need a single big player that is able to compete with spotify and has a different payment system: instead of paying the artists relative to their market share (total clicks) we need a system where the monthly rate of every single user is broken down and channeled directly only for the artists that they listened to over the month for example: Let's say I have listened 100 songs last month. I listened 60 times to Justin Bieber and 40 times to Katy Perry then 60% of my payment should go to JB and 40% to KP (disregarding the share for the platform in this example). There have already been test's where bands could make up to 500% more income from streaming that way! What happens is that we stop paying for big artists that already have a huge market share although some of us don't even listen to them. Personally I want that my 10 bucks a month go to the artists that I actually listen to!
It will have to be big artists or (hopefully not) labels that buy into it too then. Hopefully they’ll see it as “pioneering” and then other ppl will jump on board and then it will make it so that you have a “Digital Key” private to you and only you. This option will become available on multiple streaming platforms and you can choose to click “like” or “💲🔐” which will be you telling them “I really like this artist or song and want part of my $ that I pay to go to them specifically”. Actually something I tried working on with a few issues but it’s near impossible to try and corral and get all the major streaming platforms together and to buy in on that.
Everything you described doesn't require the anonymous ledger of the blockchain to function. You're just offering an alternative payment system (a volatile one at that).
Big Z. I m pursueing MBA now and created a startup project specifically for this. called "I release you" We need to work on it a few more months and hopefully can get some investors later on.I m tired of middle men taking artist's money and leave them broke.
Wow! Z this is Incredibly eye opening information I just love listening to your channel it's not just music recording and production but this subject the ultimate end game selling the product. You're being so creative in your thinking and business processes to be on board with the future of music distribution that would reward the artist and help to eliminate the financial burdens what a brilliant concept a game changer you're Special bruh truly Appreciate You!💯
Thanks very much for this overview. I was not aware of a couple of these startups. Now I am, and it seems like the future is brighter than I thought! Cool!
I need to hear some use cases that allow artists to do things that they can’t already do. It seems NFT just makes current business models a little more streamlined by standardizing the transaction process if everyone jumps on board. But it doesn’t seem to change the underlying economic and marketplace realities that keep artists struggling. Artists would essentially have to go on a general strike and refuse to participate in the legacy marketplace.
@@AndrewT34pot Only if they refuse to put their music out on other cheaper services. And only if people decide that they won’t just listen to what’s already available on the other cheaper services instead. But that wouldn’t be because of NFT. If artists wanted to create a platform with higher payouts, or only sell tracks on their websites, they could already do that.
@@automaton111 I agree with this, market economics can never favour the artists because that would be the death of the big labels who currently run the show. That's never going to change unfortunately.
@@AndrewT34pot NFT is not required to cut out the middlemen. NFT is just a method of transaction. The main obstacle is to build a competing marketplace and business model that consumers prefer over Spotify, Pandora, RU-vid, etc. From the video it sounds like he’s saying people would buy digital tracks directly from the artists rather than streaming on Spotify, but they can already do that if they want.
Thank you for this video. I am now a little more clued in than I was before on the benefits of this system. It kind of boils down to the adage of "cutting out the middle man" The NFT thing sounds kind of like a preferred stock issue with a corporation. With preferred stock, along with some form of ownership, dividends are typically also issued.
I’ve really been inspired to look past the initial hype of NTFs for bigger artists and the more cash grab initiatives, to how this technology will change the music industry as a whole. After all the podcasts I’ve listened to, articles I’ve read and videos I’ve watched, you’ve really managed to nail what it’s all about in a detailed but concise way - thank you mate!! It’s so motivating when it feels like a big change is coming.
“Music Industry” is mostly a marketing, financing, and management system nowadays. Companies will still have a role in how people find out about any artist, will manage a career in terms of appearances and gigs, and finance projects. There will still be middlemen, there will still be people pulling strings, there still will be payola no doubt. Just by changing who is holding the physical assets doesn’t change that media and marketing will drive a lot of this. It’s interesting to see other potentials for NFT, I’ve thought the speculation and pricing has been a bit silly but a decentralized digital key may be useful perhaps. I still doubt there will be no middlemen since obviously there are new companies cropping up around getting access to the block chain. If you have the technical know how then sure no middle men but from what I see it is just a new middleman who will no doubt cause a headache. Technology has always served as a double edge sword for the arts, on one hand it will allow more listeners and new ways to make art but on the other it introduces bureaucrats and greedy people. In today’s world you can’t make a living from making music out hidden somewhere but on a certain level I think that’s the most pure and mentally/emotionally safe thing for an artist to do. Do it for yourself and love who you are, do it for the craft and the thrill of improvement, money and fame just cause anxiety.
Worked two decades in the music industry as a manager. Finally a great opportunity for creators to connect with their community. How would you recommend to start as an creator? Cant wait to see more of rund
This is the best brief breakdown of Web 3.0 and NFT's that I've seen. But I don't share your optimism. Whatever success it brings, it will eventually be sucked up by the majors just like every other innovation has.
I'm so glad videos like these are appearing daily. It makes me feel better about what I'm trying to do. For a few years now we have been creating a new decentralized streaming service that corrects the current issues we are dealing with in the industry, issues that have prevented musicians from making an actual income and in so much ways. I don't know how much promotion I'll be able to get, but once we have more to show, would it be okay if I shared it to the comment section of one of these videos?
The Royal platform is one of the most interesting things i'm looking forward to. Would allow artists to distribute their songs to all major platforms, and choose a number of NFTs for each one. Lets say you make 100 tokens for a release. the royalties get evenly divided among those 100 tokens, so an artist could choose to sell 50 tokens, or 50% of the future royalty income to investors, this sort of thing could theoretically eliminate the need for label advances to cover the cost of recording, mixing, mastering, promotion. also bringing on wealthy external investors who have a financial investment in the success of your music means they're incentivized to help push the release. super interesting things to come in the next 10-15 years...
Wait, so you are proposing to not pay 30% to Spotify but instead pay 50% to investors? Correct me if I'm wrong, doesn't that mathematically mean that artists get less?
@@anilmacwan the difference is I’m selling those shares for up front $$ and I can price however I want. Yes you get less in royalties but you could get a fat advance that’s otherwise not available to you if you’re not on a label in order to record mix promote live off of etc
Love the way you present information both in these videos and your tutorials. Can really tell you are an intelligent guy. Keep doing big things brother.
Spotify originally was to lunch its own label and then branch out into other traditional forms of music exploitation; tour promoting etc., I heard, at the time - this was 2008/09 from the two dudes who started the company ( forget their names ) that when the majors heard of their plans, they threatened to it them with a ' non-compete clause,' and thus their vision of a Spotify label blew in the wind.
This seems like a great way to rebalance the scales in the musicians favour, being able to recoup some, all or more of the production costs of making an album in a short period of time looks promising. Hope you keep this conversation going👍
Thank you so much brother for this video! It'll help me to give my vision to others who are outside all of this and can't understand why I'm so excited to be part of the "shaky" music industry lmao. The vision is coming, ever so slowly. :)
nfts show that music should be treated like any other art form (eg. art gallery pieces typically start at like $200+). the record industry has watered down that value though its clear the artists’ music is worth so much. there is a need for a more mutual artist to fan/collector experience that blockchain can provide but the technology needs plenty of tweaks and can’t forget about the idea that it needs to be implemented with decentralization in mind otherwise it can quickly devolve right back into what we already have but at least there is a chance for improvement. catalog is another web3 platform thats dope and acts like an online vinyl record store. also realistically there will always be a place for streaming and the traditional model (just way too much money in it now) although the value and artists’ use case for trad streaming may change.
Wow dude I've been following your channel since the early years and the song breakdowns were super helpful. Every video now you do has more quality than the previous and you branching out to talkin business is amazing
Wow you’re really really on time something here. Would certain music laws change because they can no longer be regulated without a platform like Spotify? Could we eventually remix and release songs without the fear of harsh copyright control?
I guess I’m not seeing how NFTs are beneficial for non-established artists. It’s seemingly just another revenue stream for established artists since concerts have been slow to pick up due to COVID
The main idea is that NFTs allow you to better monetize your superfans. But you’re right, it doesn’t change the fact that you still need a decently strong fanbase in the 1st place
