Listen to this articlePeerTracks leverages the use of Blockchain technology to change the way fans and artists interact with each other. PeerTracks is using the MUSE blockchain to allow for incentivized, peer 2 peer, talent discovery and new forms of fan engagement. Here is our recent interview with Cédric Cobban, Co-founder of PeerTracks:
Q: What is PeerTracks and how does it work?
A: PeerTracks is a music streaming, music retail, talent discovery and fan engagement platform that leverages the use of Blockchain technology. This enables PeerTracks to do things which were previously unfeasible or uneconomical from a technical, political and business standpoint. For example, artists can now retain 95% of the funds generated from sales, which don’t need to pass through PeerTracks at all; funds are sent directly from fan to artist through the Peer-to-Peer payment network that is the MUSE Blockchain. Income is also automatically split between all copyright holders, which are paid within seconds. PeerTracks also allows artists to create their own “Notes” allowing them to get discovered and/or engage their fan base in revolutionary ways – and I don’t use the word lightly.
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Q: What are Notes?
A: Notes are tradable VIP passes into the artist’s world. The artist can offer perks and privileges to his Notes holders; from discounts on merchandise, to concert tickets and backstage passes and even advertiser give-aways.
Being limited in number, Notes can rise and fall in value depending on that artist’s popularity on PeerTracks. The more an artist is streamed, the more music he sells and the more he engages his Note holders, the more each one of his Notes can be worth. Not to be confused with equity – the fan does not own stake in a song, album, project, business or copyrights. Notes should be seen like fan club 2.0 memberships. The artist that created the Notes decides what he offers to his Note holders just as he decides what to offer to his fan club members – only in this case the memberships are quantifiable and tradable.
Q: Why would I want an artist’s Note?
A: Many different reasons! Perhaps you are simply a huge fan of a specific band and want to stay in the loop on whatever they do. You want to support them all while getting VIP treatment, perks and freebies at the same time. Meanwhile, you are helping the artist know who his biggest fans are. An example would be, as Taylor Swift used to do, to grant access to private video streaming of concerts, Q&A, to her fan club. We make it even easier than that with “token controlled access” where only Note holders can access the stream.
Or, maybe you stumbled upon a new artist, really like his music and think it will catch on. Buy some of his Notes while they are cheap! This action also signals to others to check him out and have a listen. If you were correct in your prediction and that artist takes off, then you might be sitting on some valuable Notes! Consider this your reward for helping that artist get discovered.
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Q: What was the inspiration behind building PeerTracks?
A: My partner Eddie Corral and I both have different reasons for founding PeerTracks. For me, I had been following the crypto-currency space for a while when I noticed some artists were talking about creating their own crypto-currency. This required them building their own blockchain, getting “miners” on board and getting their coin listed on exchanges. Quite the barrier but the main problem is that the value of their blockchain/coin would not necessarily track the popularity or success of the artist’s career. I knew there was tremendous potential for both talent discovery and fan engagement to be harnesses through artists having their own crypto-token. It was just a question of figuring out two things: first, how to make “User Created Tokens” simple to create and trade and second, having the value of those User Created Tokens track the career of the artist that created them. Thanks to Dan Larimer and the large community that follows him, we figured out a way to do all of that and then some!
PeerTracks never had any intentions of being simply another streaming or retail platform. Nor did we aim to become one of the hundreds of music discovery apps! No, we wanted to make a real splash and change the way fans and artists interact with each other in a fundamental way. For that we needed a blockchain – which is where MUSE comes in.
Q: What exactly is MUSE?
A: It is a music-specific Membership Organisation in the cloud that aims to be the foundation for the music industry’s new ecosystem. A Peer-to-Peer network (a Blockchain) that allows transparent and instant transfers of wealth while acting as a database for copyright related information. It provides artists, among many things, with transparent accounting, automatically split up royalty payments and the capability to create their Notes.
Q: There have been many other attempts at creating a global music rights database. What makes you different?
A: Simply put, MUSE is not proprietary. It is an ownerless, automated, globally distributed, Peer-to-Peer network. The maintenance of its content does not depend on trust of a central authority. How does that change anything? Well, MUSE’s open, transparent and permanent nature makes it possible for anybody (artists, labels, Publishers, Royalty collecting organisations, etc.) to plug in for free and start building on top of this stable and solid infrastructure. Not being proprietary, there is no need to ask permission to anyone in order to use MUSE. Artists or entrepreneurs can plug into MUSE and benefit immediately from its use all while offloading the costs of maintaining their own databases to the Blockchain. Similar to the Internet, there is no need to “build your own Internet” or to plug into “someone else’s internet” in order to benefit from being connected to the world. Both MUSE and the Internet are free and permanent networks that are open to all.
Other attempts at global databases left it depending entirely on the whims and political/business decisions of the centralized entity that controlled it. It is much too risky for an entrepreneur to base his business model on access to a database that can disappear or fundamentally change overnight.
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Q: What are your plans for the future? Do you have any new features in the pipeline?
A: An invite-only Alpha version of PeerTracks will be launched on the 26th of October 2015 at the same time as the MUSE blockchain goes online. Pioneer artists wishing to take this dynamic duo for a spin are welcome to sign up. They will be able to upload their music to the platform, set up the automatic royalty payment splitter for their music and create and sell their Notes to their fan base. As far as the public version goes, we are aiming to have PeerTracks Beta released during SXSW 2016.
Q: How would you convince the reader to start using is PeerTracks?
A: Well that entirely depends on what type of user they are!
Listeners stream for free and are never interrupted by audio-ads. On top of that they can buy and trade Notes of their favorite artists and benefit for all the perks that come with being a Note holder.
Undiscovered artist will love it since PeerTracks can practically guarantee their music will be heard. Our users are constantly looking for undervalued Notes. This means that they go through the “New” column (of the genres they know best) in search for content that they find good or might have potential. If the work is something they like and believe in, then can buy some of the Notes. That purchase registers on MUSE’s internal market. This means others can notice that someone purchased those Notes and they might have a listen for themselves. Activity regarding those Notes can push the undiscovered artist to the trending column, getting more and more people to notice his music, stream it, share it, buy it, and even purchase some Notes themselves. It is a positive feedback loop to getting discovered.
The superstar, who is already discovered, will benefit in different ways. Her Notes already having high demand (hence higher value) means she would be able to sell them to raise money. She can then use the Notes to engage her fan base. For example, she could offer her top 50 Note holders free concert tickets and her top 5 Note holders backstage passes. Advertiser give-aways are not to be ignored either. A brand might want a rock star to give away free coffees to all his Note holders in order to get new customers through the door all while associating his brand with the Note holder’s favorite artist. The artist also gets to know who his/her most engaged fans are and is able to use this information for important career decisions.
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