ThreeTuneTuesday - BlockTunes, the Future of Music?
Have you heard abot BlockTunes? I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't, since it is a pretty new app on the block (pun well intended), and thus it doesn't have too much music to offer... yet. However, it does offer something else: a whole new concept of owning music and supporting artists. This latter part I am still getting my head around, hoping that writing this post will help me in this regard. But first, let's check out some of the music already on it. It should surely be enough for a #ThreeTuneTuesday challenge.
Publishing Music
So let's say you're a musician. A passionate tune-smith who creates sweet melodies, engaging rhythms, thoughtful lyrics. And even though everyone around you seems to like it, no big-time label has invited you to their studio. I'm not sure you would even want to go, but recording your music and spreading it among potential new listeners still is a good idea. So what do you do? Back in the day you'd make a demo tape, that the audience could buy (or get for free) while you were busking at the coffee shop. And today? Well, you can post it on the Hive blockchain, using BlockTunes.
That's what my friend @fenngen did, and once he announced it in this post, I got to listen to El Bosque. A song about building a small shelter in the woods, which gradually evolved into more. And true enough, that's what his posts were all about when I first started following him a few years ago. Awesome! But when I saw that my listening to this track earned him 0.1 HIVE I was totally sold. Using the features of the Blockchain, you can reward musicians for their tunes! But there is more...
Buying, Owning, and Sharing Music
Back in the day I would listen to the radio through my tape-deck, and when a song came up that I particularly liked, I pressed record. This way I could have my favorites tunes at hand and listen to it whenever I wanted. I didn't need to wait for it to be played on the radio. I could even lend the tape to my buddy, who would copy it, and even put songs in a particular order to make a playlist. We would circulate the music, and claim to "own" it (after all, it was ours, right?) thus increase the musician's popularity, earning the label some insane funds, but never even get a cent for it ourselves.
On the contrary: By the time (writable) CDs came to replace tapes, which in turn were replaced by MP3s, small time music sharers like me were starting to be guilt-tripped for "pirating" tunes. All the while we were making all the big names even more famous. But then technology turned another page, and nowadays people don't even download their music any more. To share something, all you do is type in their name, and the search result will send you to a site where they published their music. There you can listen, and if you want, send some money to support the musicians. Kinda like on BlockTunes ... except here you can actually EARN with the musician you support.
When @fenngen published his latest song Simpleza (Rezo), he created three Master Copies, and one of them he shared with me. What does that mean? Every time someone listens to that tune (once every 24 hours, for more than just the first few seconds - yes, they anticipated bot farming!) not only does he get paid, but also me! Ahhh... so this is how this works! Finally I get rewarded for sharing music! Fantastic. So let's see what else can be found on this awesome site right now?
Buying a Master
Not all too much, to be perfectly honest. But there ARE a few interesting things. This certain @audihive-me just made me check out their She Brings Anarchy. That's right, just like in so many cases, it is the visual of the album cover that made me want to listen to the audio. In the end I did not like it that much... I was looking forward to the violin (You know, they always get it wrong: Anarchy comes with violins, not violence!) But that's cool, I'm sure there will be more of it later. However, their previous track Preamble I could listen to forever. Which is actually what I'm doing while typing this post. And what's more, they were selling a Master of this song!!! For 1 HBD it could be mine. You bet I got me some Preamble!
The transaction was not (yet) automatized, so I had to send 20.833 HIVE manually to @blocktunes, with a copy of the memo that I wanted to buy this song. But once sent out, it took less time than the length of this track for the confirmation to come: I was now a proud owner of some newly discovered music! Thank you @blocktunes, and thank you @audiohive-me!
So go ahead, get yourselves some music on BlockTunes. Better yet, buy some music to earn some HIVE with. Still better, publish your music on the Hive blockchain and mint some masters to sell. What a cool concept. I can't wait for it to grow more diverse!
To see more of my music related posts, please visit my Monday Music post collection.
Posted using BlockTunes
Actually, we've been around since 2022. Just reviving things to try and stay alive. Thanks for the write up! We need more people organically helping us grow!
Posted using BlockTunes
Oh no! Oh yeah! So it seems like it was just me who missed out on it? No, I'm sure others have missed out on it too. They are the ones this post is for!
It's all good. We launched at really the worst time possible in 2022 at the top of the hype cycle, so we lost momentum really fast when the markets came down and just let the site sit there for a while, so yeah, that's on us, lol.
The new site looks cool. Lots of awesome new features there for artists to use! I remember using it a bit way back when I used to Hive more often!
We're just in the process of giving slothbuzz a facelift too! Seems Hive is still building under the surface after all! Maybe we could find a way to link your music into the radio player we have on slothbuzz.com; it would be cool to give artists even more exposure on Hive and beyond!
Oh, so there's another thing I have never even heard of before: Slothbuzz! Another front end that looks like it's much more extensive than just a blogging site. Though I'm sure it's in the middle of the facelift, which is why I could not log in. But hopefully later...
Ah, glad you found us, sorry you couldn't log in. Did you get an error or anything? Log in should be available at the bottom left of the browser page; then make sure to click Browser Log In and log in with Keychain. If you have any issues, give me a tag/reply here or jump into the slothbuzz Discord, and I'll be able to assist a little quicker!
We'd love to hear people's feedback on the site; it's still a work in progress, but we think it's usable for the basics already, so we're keen to share!
Interesting! Same exact procedure as before, same steps, but this time it worked. Must have been a glitch the first time.
Ah, no worries; we're still in the 'testing' phase, so we are expecting some issues. Please let us know any other issues you experience/any feedback you may have so we can keep improving! Thanks for taking the time to check things out!
Aha, I can see you're working on it. At least today it seems to look a bit different, though I can't put my finger on exactly what it is. I was going to write a review about it, but since it's in transition I will probably wait till all the changes are in place. Please let me know!
We'd love a post about it for some exposure, probably not worth doing a 'review' as its a work in progress but we'd love to hear your thoughts regardless. We know theres still a few 'major' things that need fixed to make it fully usable for all your Hive needs, but the basics are there, and sloths pets! What more could you need! Lol!
No, I hadn't heard -- that's amazing! God help us though if it gets flooded with AI tracks. I like that Spotify and Tidal have taken stances on that recently.
There are a few, but not the ones I picked, I think... Well, at least @fengen I'm pretty sure is real.
There is still a person behind the prompt. We provide the tools that people who have never been able to produce their idea before can actually try and create something they never could before. So I argue that AI generated music can be a beautiful thing if people would get their negative stigmas out of the picture.
Hey there, nice writeup, hopefully people will pick up on what's going on here. Let's keep spreading the word!
P.d. my username is with two n's (fenngen) but thanks for sharing my music, there have been plenty of listens these days
Oh, I'm sorry about the n! When I started typing the first three letter, it popped up with just one n, so I simply clicked on it. But true, that account doesn't have any profile image, so I should have noticed something wasn't right.
But I'm glad that you've had more listens these last few days. Was it because of my post? I don't know. Will we ever know? 😜
Hopefully some day @blocktunes can have some form of following metrics and knowing where the listeners come from 😁
The only place they can come from is the Blocktunes interface... You also have an artist dashboard that gives you some metrics to look at.
At this point, developement is complete until we get more users, and more importantly, revenue coming into the platform. Can't afford anything else at this point.
Posted using BlockTunes
I have the best hopes for the platform and that users as well as revenue pour into it in abundance. I also really want to help but I'm limited in technological resources as well as money but I will do my best with what I have to cooperate
Yeah, that would be useful. For now, I just noticed you have a new song up! Very VERY cool. I like it.
Interesting...: You're selling masters for 1, 2, 3, or 4 HBD. (Okay, one of these options is not available any more, hahaha!) That means, the listener can decide if they want to support you with a generous price, or grab the cheapest one. In either case they will reap the same benefit from supporting you.
Thanks bro, I appreciate the feedback!
I just noticed you added more to the message, thanks for buying a copy and withe the most generous donation 😁
Unfortunately the system only credited me with 3.8 HIVE and not HBD so maybe @blocktunes can offer some assistance in the matter
Yeah, we are having some conversion issues that we are looking today with this. Probably going to remove the HIVE payment option and focus soley on HBD and BT Credits as they are both pegged to $1 value. Not currently on a device with my active key, but will make it right when back in the lab.
Thanks!
Yeah, people are not understanding the value that these Masters can have if the platform really gets going and are selling themselves short.
Aha! Thanks for raising this important point. Actually, could you elaborate on it a little? Who is selling themself short, and how?
See, I chose to buy the 4 HBD master of this song, simply because I wanted to support a fellow Hiver I've been following for years. But, let's say I find some music that I like, by someone I have no contact with. Of course, eventually I'd get to know them, become friends, etc. But until then, it's all about the music. If I see potential in it, and I can buy a master, I want to do it for the lowest price I can get. Also, by choosing the expensive master, I leave the cheap ones still available to other potential buyers who don't want to spend that much on the song.
The artists need to figure out how to value their work and the future potential streaming rewards are worth to them. Of course you are going to want to get them cheap, but in the grand scheme of things, $1 for potential life time income is nothing. So artists need to look at that and price accordingly. I mean, I have songs out there in the mainstream world that I have sold the publishing and commercial rights for for thousands of dollars. So again, it's how much the artist values their work.
So basically if an artist only values the streaming income rights to their work at $1, then that's what they will set it at. I would personally look to go higher, but I value my music, so there is that.
Posted using BlockTunes
Well sure, but it's all supply and demand. If someone was selling a song for a hundred bucks, I don't think I'd buy it. Ten dollars, in very exceptional cases. One dollar without much thinking.
Also, we're talking about Masters on BlockTunes. Owning one will give me passive income every time someone listens to that song. The amount is dust, but over time it could accumulate. That's it, though. Owning a master does not give me any commercial rights, does it? I don't even think I could incorporate it into a video I create, without at least asking and coming to terms with the musician who created it.
I get your point, and it doesn't help that Hive is essentially dust these days, which has been a consideration too that Hive is just a dying chain all together. But the fact that it's the only chain that can really handle what we are doing as far as the resource costs, it's what we have to work with. Artist are free to price as they wish is all I am saying and if they want to sell one of their 10 masters for $1, then cool, that's on them to do! If they want to try to sell them for $100, then cool, that's on them and they need to accept that they will probably not sell.
Posted using BlockTunes
Hahaha, true, these supply-demand issues were part of the discussion from the beginning. And I love it! There is no one telling you anything. Or sure, everyone is telling you lots of things, but then you can decide where to put your money, how much of it, and its 100% up to you. If in the end you make great winnings, or great losses, that's also up to you.
And yes, projects have failed, people have left, and the price of the coin is where it is. Still I would not call it a dying chain. After all, there are still people using it, new projects, and things are still happening. In fact you could say the whole cryptosphere is dying... but then suddenly ETH is above 1900 (not that matters much). My point is, until the shutters are completely drawn, we're still here, and doing stuff. Which I appreciate, by the way. Thank you!
You're welcome. Thanks for the appreciation. Most devs don't get that these days. It's usually, 'why can't you build it like this?' Or the 'what can I get for free?' mentality. Kind of puts you in a place where you feel like nothing will ever be enough. I appreciate the few that have stepped up to actually try and use the platform, so in return, thank you.
Posted using BlockTunes
You've been curated by @plantpoweronhive! Delegations welcome!