What does it take? How could it be implemented? And – the burning question – by whom? Apple/Google/Amazon, or a start-up lurking in the wings?

1. Blockchain
technology
EVAN STEIN
QUANTONE

2. Spoiler !!!!!!!!!
Decibel is changing its name!
New product, international reach, dot-com address.
Web: www.quantonemusic.com / Mail: First.Last@quantonemusic.com
Update your address books!

3. Problem
 Why is it so difficult to do business?
 Music is the world’s third-oldest profession
 Very little is new in the creation process
 Distribution models have changed, but the business end hasn’t caught
up
 Paying is seriously fraught
 Royalties are collected, but they don’t move
 The wait can go on for years
 Computers changed everything
 Everyone has them, so couldn’t we do something?

4. Using technology to keep track
 First (sensible) try (with thanks to Paul Jessop)
 Musician swipes card on the way into a session
 Musician plays
 Ka-ching!
 Benefits
 Established process
 Tally that doesn’t depend on human memory
 Information can be adapted to salary, ongoing royalties, sleeve notes,
etc.
 Creating payroll is an automated task: with or without humans

5. Rethink Music Report:
Recommendations
 The development of a “Creator’s Bill of Rights.” (keeping creators in-
the-know)
 A “fair music” certification of transparency for digital services and
labels.
 The investigation of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies to
manage and track online payments through the value chain
directly from fans to music creators.
 The creation of a decentralized, feasible rights database.
 Educating all types of music creators regarding their rights and the
operations of the music industry.

6. The Takeaway
 Transparency is an age-old problem. If anything, we know more about it now.
 Musicians should definitely educate themselves! No one dreams of being broke,
and music isn’t an easy career choice. Exploiting this gap are agencies that
look after their clients’ rights and royalties.
 Some bits of information will always be opaque (hideous diagram to follow), or
at least, the domain of the unions. “Transparency” here should start with the
individual musician knowing what they’re due and why.
 Paying musicians within 90 days is itself visionary idea
 After setbacks like the GRD, we should think of a minimum viable product.
 The PROs will still be involved, and their efficiency will depend on incremental
improvements to the general situation. They can’t be transparent if they don’t
have the info.

7. The Music Information Ecosystem
(Who, What, When, Where and How)
Works / Authoring /
Publishing
(What/When/Where)
Agreed identifiers
Participations
Music
Lyrics
Rights
Splits
Agreements
Regions
Time Periods
Performance / Production
(What/When/Where)
Lineup
Performance roles
Other roles
Album or track-based?
Location(s)
Date(s)
Edits, splices, samples
Contracts
Regions
Time Periods
Advances?Sales Figures (How)
Region
Genre
Time Period
Market
Entities (Who)
Individuals
Aliases
Groups
Authority?
Data protection
Bio / photos
Acting?
Videos?
Distribution
(What/When/Where)
Physical
Streaming
• On-demand
• Radio-like
Files
Synch rights
Live performance
• Tickets
• Merch
Deal type
• Artist-Direct
• Aggregated
• Custom
Sentiment (How)
Ratings
Charts
Chatter

8. Blockchain technology
 Digital payments (apocryphal story about PRO’s first
attempt)
 Characteristics
 Piggybacks Bitcoin technology, geared for security
 Universal identifier for an entity (combined with hard work of
identifying the actual entities)
 Usable over multiple databases
 Unambiguous
 Positives
 Bitcoin is geared for micropayments, so they don’t have to be
batched
 Content creator supplies one set of public credentials to
everyone. Private details stay private.
 Artist can always be located.
 Census of the music industry

9. Blockchain Technology
 “Less” Positive
 Individual would take risks with Bitcoin, or other cutting-
edge technologies – could lose everything
 Traditional companies (such as PayPal) set higher
amounts. They might get more friendly over time
 Might be G20-only affair
 Cashing-in may be difficult, or attract the attention of
governments
 Transaction fee needs to be near-zero, or traditional
agencies (PROs) would have to maintain accounts
 Adjustments would mean that the account holder might
have to maintain a balance
 Now that we know WHO to pay, we still have to
concentrate on WHAT to pay.

10. While We’re Waiting
 Get the jump on the artist-identification task
 Data is VERY slippery
 This alone might take years
 Come up with unique identification for each individual/identity
 Verify
 Cross-reference with existing identifiers
 Library of Congress Name Authority File (NAF)
 VIAF - Virtual International Authority File
 PND Name Authority File (Personennamendatei)
 Integrated Authority File (Gemeinsame Normdatei or GND)
 ISNI: International Standard Name Identifier
 Include books, films and other careers
 For groups and group members, include time as a dimension

11. Conclusion
 The last piece of the puzzle is to reward the musicians with the very
technology that changed the music industry (unfortunately, way
after the consumers and the middlemen).
 This is the first piece of the new puzzle – a good idea that is worthy of
attention
 Too early to settle even on the first solution, though important to
map out the characteristics.
 Improvements might have to draw a line at the present:
 Better information-gathering by both labels and musicians
 Agent representatives will have increased responsibility, looking
after their clients’ digital (and monetary) interests