156

Blockchain Technology

store and Hungama (Ucaya, 2020; Statista, 2020). The average usage share of each

of these platforms as of 2019 is shown in Table 9.4.

9.13  BLOCKCHAIN AND MUSIC INDUSTRY

Although users or customers nowadays can get songs or music streamed or down­

loaded with a click of a button, the people involved in its creation do not get their

dues that easily. The payment to these stakeholders is not transparent either.

Stakeholders such as the songwriters, producers or musicians are the ones who

get their payments last, even though they are the people who start building the prod­

uct. Sometimes, these participants are not aware of how their royalties are calculated

(Moreira, 2020; Kim and Kim, 2020).

This problem can be solved using blockchain technology. A common protocol

will be followed, which all the members of the music industry supply chain must

adhere to. Every individual will be informed about their earnings. A peer-to-peer

network consisting of not only the creators of the work but also those involved in its

path to reach the audience will be aware of all the details available to them in the

form of a distributed ledger of metadata.

9.14  COMPANIES THAT USED BLOCKCHAIN

FOR THE MUSIC INDUSTRY

In this section, we present some companies that are associated with the music indus­

try and use the blockchain mechanism as a medium for maintenance to distribute

royalties to various stakeholders.

9.14.1  Mediachain

A New York-based peer-to-peer company, which provides a blockchain database that

can be used to share data among diverse applications. The work done by this com­

pany is not limited to organizing open-source information with unique identifiers but

TABLE 9.4

Usage Share of Streaming Platforms as of 2019

Platform

Usage Share (%)

Gaana

20

Amazon Music

20

Wynk

15

YouTube Music

10

Google Play store

15

Hungama

10

Others

10