rolex
SSupported by cloud hosting provider DigitalOcean – Try DigitalOcean now and receive a $200 when you create a new account!

Streaming Platform PeerTracks Uses The SounDAC Blockchain To Provide Free Music For Us All

Listen to this article

 

* – This article has been archived and is no longer updated by our editorial team –

Below is our recent interview with Cédric Cobban, the Founder & President at PeerTracks:

Cédric Cobban

Q: What is the story behind PeerTracks, how did you start?

A: Our original concept was quite different actually. Once we fell in love with the potential Blockchain technology had towards the music industry, we started working on our first concept, what was commonly referred to as ‘artistcoins’. The concept was to allow each artist/band to create their own coin. We have pivoted away from this since, during this endeavour, we noticed a few important factors that couldn’t be ignored. First was the realization that there are fundamental, systemic problems within the music industry. Lack of transparency in both reports of streams and royalty earnings. High friction for payments is also a big issue. Third would be the lawsuits that spring up whenever one party has been paying the wrong copyright holders.

We at PeerTracks believed that the reason this industry is so convoluted is due to a problem of infrastructure. Not having reliable data (on who to credit, who to pay, who to get licences from while not having reliable tracking methods for streams or good ways to disperse royalties) opens up the door to countless services that will try and bridge the gap (for a fee!) In other words, the horrible state of the current industry is a breeding ground for middlemen

For a blockchain start up like PeerTracks, this meant we were in the perfect market to apply this new “Middleman killing” technology to create a fresh new infrastructure for a truly prosperous music world to spring out of.

For this reason, we pivoted away from the ‘artistcoin’ concept and decided to tackle the problems at their core by building an open database that acts as the foundation for the new music world — one that is simple for the artist and the business world alike.

PeerTracksRecommended: SpokeHub Brings The Social Back To Social Media – Raises $2M In New Funding

Q: Why do we need a revolution in the music industry?

A: Because it is dangerously inefficient and incredibly hard to navigate — not just for artist, but for businesses as well. I am not exaggerating when I say that over the 4 years I have been working on this project, I’ve never met a single person that had a complete grasp of the space. Those that have a fair understanding of it have a legal department behind them! The current industry renders it nearly impossible for musicians to make it without a business or law degree. Not something you normally associate with the creative types that form the music creating population.

The music industry needs a simple, clean, stable source of truth (a database) in order to allow a scalable ecosystem to flourish. One which doesn’t need 90% of the services the current middlemen offer. For example, you don’t need a service to collect and disperse funds on the artists behalf when autonomous code can do it for free. If something can be automated, it is just a matter of time before it will be automated away.

Q: It seems like you are building much more than a database, correct?

A: Indeed! PeerTracks Inc. is building a full ecosystem for the music industry of the future. We are laying the foundation, baking in the incentives and providing the tools for businesses to build on top of the SounDAC protocol.

SounDAC is the blockchain, PeerTracks.com is the first streaming platform that makes use of SounDAC in order to pay all copyright holders.

Q: Your application is utilizing the SOUNDAC Blockchain; what exactly is SOUNDAC?

A: It is a blockchain that serves a few functions. First, it acts as a single source of truth for who to credit on specific musical works. The database is crowd-curated (think wikipedia) and being open, it enables everyone on earth (especially useful for businesses) to know who to pay, in real-time.

SounDAC’s second function is to act as a means of payment. Users and businesses can funnel funds through this blockchain in order to reach an artist across the globe within seconds. Funds going towards “Song X” will be automatically divided to all rights holders as per instructions contained within that song entry (a smart contract residing on the SounDAC chain).

The third, and most exciting, role SounDAC has is to track streams in real time and be the source of royalty payments! Digital Service Providers (DSPs) that conform to the SounDAC community’s best practices of reporting all streams to the blockchain will get their royalty payments subsidized. Usually these streaming platforms need to charge subscription fees and/or go the advertising model in order to pay for royalties. In our model though, the DSP merely reports what was streamed and SounDAC pays the appropriate rights holders via block rewards.

Q: What are the benefits of using your platform?

A: For music consumers, it allows them to listen to all the music on PeerTracks for free, without having to listen to any ads! All while knowing they are supporting the artists they are listening to. Streams being reported on the immutable Blockchain means anyone can check that rightsholders are in fact receiving what they are due.

For music creators, they are able to own and control their valuable metadata, cooperate on terms right there on the chain. More importantly, for the first time they can see all streams taking place on all streaming platforms plugged into the SounDAC ecosystem. And last but not least, they can get paid directly — funds are not sent, they are generated directly into the wallets of the copyright holders.

For businesses, SounDAC provides them a stable infrastructure on which to build their applications without the risk of a rapid change in direction (such as putting up a paywall, closing off data access, etc.) SounDAC being a Distributed Automated Company means it isn’t in the hands of a single entity.
Streaming platforms (DSPs) in particular deserve a special mention here. They can get their main expense subsidized by the DAC. By jumping on board the transparent way of doing business, block rewards subsidies take care of the royalties they would normally be paying out. This means they can radically change their own business model and monetize in other creative ways.

PeerTracksRecommended: CodeFirst Builds Custom Software Solutions For Businesses Worldwide

Q: What are you most excited about?

A: We don’t mention this often, but our users don’t even need to know they are using blockchain tech. There’s nothing traditionally “crypto” about our platforms. There are no public keys you need to share around. No transaction fees to pay every time you want to take an action. You don’t have to wait for transactions to be included in a block before moving on. There’s no browser plug-ins required to download and install. There is no need to go buy Bitcoin, then to convert it into the native cryptocurrency the app requires in order to make use of it.

Within the SounDAC ecosystem, you simply create an account by entering a username and a password – just as you would do on a traditional website! No need to buy crypto or pay transaction fees. Everything looks and feels exactly as user friendly as a traditional app. We are truly ready to onboard the masses with this.

Q: What can we expect from PeerTracks in the future?

A: Where to begin! I think it is important to mention that this is not merely in idea phase. This is no mere white paper or upcoming ICO. The blockchain is already running. The token (XSD) is trading. The PeerTracks platform has launched and is pulling in new content from the chain daily. It is already streaming music for users, reporting streams to SounDAC while the latter covers the royalties. We have a fully working, scalable ecosystem.

That being said, our focus during Q4, 2018 is threefold.
First, to begin importing bigger and bigger music catalogs to SounDAC, making it all available through PeerTracks. It’s important to understand that our team contains a lot of music industry insiders, it is not merely comprised of blockchain fans and developers. Our CEO, Eddie Corral has 30+ years of music industry experience. Bill Craig, Jamie Roberts and even our NYC based attorney are all deeply rooted in the music and entertainment industry. PeerTracks understands the space it is entering, and we know who to reach out to first in order to fill up SounDAC and PeerTracks with quality acts.

Second, to get XSD listed on more and more cryptocurrency exchanges and third, to start our online marketing campaign. Now that there is more and more content available to stream, we need to let the masses know they can listen to subscription-free and ad-free music.

Activate Social Media:
Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedin
,
Mercedes-Benz-EQS