| dc.description.abstract | The topic of revenue streams in the music industry has been frequently discussed since the transition from sales to streaming started when Spotify launched in 2008. Even though revenues in the industry have reached new heights, musicians express dissatisfaction with lower royalty payouts. Moreover, it has become increasingly more difficult to understand the royalty calculations. With today's complicated licensing agreements, money flows through a complex chain of third parties before it reaches the musicians. The industry struggles with transparency and efficiency, and the musicians are paying the price. Meanwhile, blockchain technology has developed since its first implementation with Bitcoin in 2008. Today, more advanced blockchains can run decentralized transparent applications that utilize the technology's efficient transaction system. With the industry issues and the promises of blockchain in mind, we investigate how blockchain technology can be applied to solve value chain problems within the music space.
In this thesis, we identify core issues in the music industry, propose a decentralized application (dApp) that attempts to solve these issues and implement the proposed solution. We develop the business logic using smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain and make an associated web application using a JavaScript framework. The dApp works as a global copyrights database where musicians can register and license musical works. We exploit Ethereum's efficient transactional system to manage license purchases. Furthermore, we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of blockchain based solutions. | |
