Over the last few years, online streaming has become a norm in the music industry. So much so that, popular streaming services like Spotify and SoundCloud have become household names, currently generating billions of dollars in revenue annually.
However, a crypto-based streaming service – known as Audius – has entered the fray and is looking to transform how things work. Although the platform is relatively new and has only about 7.5 million users, a fraction of the 445 million music streamers globally, the famous Rolling Stone magazine has already hailed it as a rival to Spotify. But what is Audius, how does it work, and what’s all the hype about? Let’s find out!
What is Audius?
Founded in 2018, Audius is a blockchain-powered music streaming service that aims to create a direct link between artists and their fans. It is common knowledge that artists are usually poorly compensated for their work, and most of the revenue goes directly to the distributors.music
However, with support from a powerful trustless technology like blockchain, Audius aims to change this norm and give artists the recognition and revenue they deserve. It is a platform that connects artists directly with their fans while eliminating intermediaries.
The project started on the POA network, an Ethereum sidechain. However, due to Ethereum’s scalability issues, Audius migrated parts of its platform to Solana. The project officially launched its mainnet in Oct 2020, with a live-streamed concert headlined by deadmau5 and RAC.
How does it work?
It’s pretty simple. Artists upload their tracks, and users can listen to them for free. There is no criteria or voting process to become an artist on Audius. Anyone can sign, upload tracks and artwork, and get started.
Delving deeper, Audius revolves around three categories of users: artists, listeners and node operators. Nodes are further divided into two sub-categories: content nodes and discovery nodes. The content nodes are responsible for hosting and managing content on behalf of the artists.
On the other hand, discovery nodes are responsible for indexing music and metadata uploaded to the Audius blockchain. This allows users to search for artists or songs quickly and easily. Artists can also operate as content nodes, but it is entirely optional.
As a blockchain-based service, Audius also has its cryptocurrency, AUDIO. It is an ERC-20 token that serves several purposes on the platform. To begin with, to run a node on the platform, you need to stake AUDIO. Conversely, nodes also receive AUDIO as a reward for contributing to the functioning and security of the platform.
AUDIO also doubles up as a governance token. AUDIO holders can vote on proposals and shape the future of the platform. Finally, AUDIO also has utility for artists. To begin with, it will be used to pay artists for their music. The artists receive 90 percent of the generated revenue while 10 percent is allocated to the nodes. Further, artists can also stake AUDIO to obtain certain premium features and benefits.
Audius doesn’t pay artists solely on the number of times their tracks are played. It also considers the artist’s popularity and activity on the network. For instance, artists who feature in the top 5 tracks or artists of the week or month, or any other such trending lists, receive additional AUDIO tokens.
What’s in it for the users?
Audius offers quality streaming at 320kbps, just like Spotify and Google Play Music. Even though it is a relatively new platform, Audius already has over 100,00+ artists on board. This includes the likes of Mike Shinoda, Skrillex, Wuki, Odesza, Skrillex, Diplo, Disclosure, and several others. Of course, users can listen to all these artists and their songs at no cost whatsoever.
Users also have the unique opportunity to shape the platform's future using the voting rights they obtain by holding AUDIO. Further, the platform also has an artist-fan collaboration where users can submit covers or remixes of original tracks to win AUDIO tokens.
Finally, the platform is different from most blockchain-based projects. One does not require any web3 knowledge or coding expertise. The platform is designed to be simple and easy to use, just like any other music streaming app.
Conclusion
Audius is undoubtedly an up-and-coming project which aims to revolutionize one of the top industries. If the platform continues to gain traction amongst users and artists, it could even replace popular streaming platforms like Spotify in the future. However, a recent exploit on the platform and the current bear market have sent AUDIO on a downward spiral this year. At the time of writing, the token was changing hands at $0.1476, down 4.25 percent over the last 24 hours and 91 percent YTD.
(Edited by : Anushka Sharma)
