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 @fengen 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 @fengen 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