158

Blockchain Technology

technology (Shrestha et al., 2020). The Ethereum platform is used to help remove

any confusion related to ownership of the music or any payment-related issues. The

concepts of smart contracts and cryptocurrencies have been used by this business.

Initially, when blockchain technology was invented, the cryptocurrency that was

a part of the transactions was bitcoin. The hashing algorithm used was SHA-256.

But bitcoin did have limitations, such as scalability and computation power, to name

a few.

The Ethereum technology overcomes the limitations of bitcoin, and the crypto­

currency associated with it is called Ether. The main feature of the Ethereum network

is the Greedy Heaviest Observed Subtree (GHOST) protocol. One main advantage

of Ethereum blockchain over bitcoin blockchain is that the Ethereum block contains

the most recent state of the block along with the block header, nonce, difficulty tar­

get and transaction list (Vujičić et al., 2018). The centralization problems that would

occur due to stale blocks are overcome in this technology.

9.14.3  CHOON

This is a blockchain-based platform for music streaming with digital mode of pay­

ment, located in the UK. The platform provided uses Ethereum technology as the

basis for smart contracts between the artists and contributors of every song. The

creators of the song receive their payment within a time based on the number

of streams that have been recorded, whereas with the traditional procedure, they

would have had to wait for a year and might not have received the correct royalty

either.

In addition to rights or royalty payments, the blockchain also provides crowd­

funding to new forthcoming artists, and rewards are given to listeners when they

create their own personalized playlist.

9.14.4  Open Music Initiative (OMI)

This is a non-profit business that includes around 200 members residing in Boston,

Massachusetts. The aim is to have an open-source protocol that can be followed in

the music industry (Sitonio and Nuccarelli, 2018). The use of blockchain technol­

ogy helps to uniquely identify the music rights owners and creators, enabling them

to receive their deserved royalties. The platform provided by OMI is an applica­

tion programming interface (API) that helps the stakeholders of the organization in

developing their own systems.

9.14.5  Musicoin

This is a platform located in Hong Kong that not only streams music but also sup­

ports the creation, use and distribution of the work in a shared economy (Sitonio

and Nuccarelli, 2018). The global currency it uses, called MUSIC, provides sup­

port with respect to any trade that involves music or purchases that are related to

music. Middlemen such as third parties are completely removed, ensuring that 100%