SoundCloud’s new, game-changing payout model

This is reflective of a broader trend—artists want direct ownership over the relationship with their fans, and to be compensated based on how these fans interact with their music. Case in point: SoundCloud’s recent foray into ‘fan-centric’ payouts, Deezer’s continued experimentation with user-centric payout models, and the ongoing parliamentary inq... See more

On streaming platforms, each stream of a song contributes the same amount of revenue (approximately $0.004 per stream on Spotify), regardless of that fan’s particular intensity of affinity towards the artist. In contrast, on platforms like Catalog or Sound, superfans are purchasing NFT music for thousands of dollars each, with creators earning what... See more

 imagine writing a song and not only getting paid when others made money playing it at events, but enabling others to remix it permissionlessly with proceeds flowing back to you, all while collecting data on its usage that you could use to find professional opportunities while connecting to others with similar taste. 

If we tokenize Soundcloud, and transfer its governance to a network of token holders, it will represent the first of many seismic shifts towards collective ownership, and an historic victory for the decentralized cryptocurrency space over the prevalent, advertising driven, era of the web.

Sound, which lets musicians sell their songs as NFTs to their biggest fans, has been on fire in its first month. Its 5pm daily drops have become appointment internet, and it sold out its first 21 consecutive drops in under a minute each and paid out over $200k to artists (plus a 10% cut of secondary transactions, which have been very active). It wo... See more

For musicians, web3 is changing their relationship with fans. NFTs, creator tokens, and new crowdfunding opportunities are emerging as ways to incentivize active participation in a creator's success.web2: passive engagementweb3: co-creation and co-ownership

The concept of a paid, crowdfunded membership for music is nothing new. Fan clubs for pop culture have been around since the early nineteenth century, and crowdfunding in particular is at the core of musical entrepreneurship in the Internet age. One of the world's first crowdfunding sites, ArtistShare, was founded in 2001 specifically for musicians... See more