Blockchain Elevates The Music Community With ‘Audius’

By Dmitriy

BTC Wires: A new platform has risen from the heart of Blockchain technology to engulf SoundCloud and apparently, it shall do so in only a matter of months. Having successfully picked up $5.5 million in the Series A round of funding, Audius is going strong towards, what might be, the impending doom of SoundCloud. Explaining Audits precisely, it is a decentralised, community owned music sharing platform. A fairly simple phenomenon, but one with the potential of disrupting SoundCloud’s monopoly.

On August 8, Audius confirmed that their funding was harnessed by General Catalyst and Lightspeed, with additional help from Kleiner Perkins, Pantera Capital, Ascolta Ventures and 122West. To explain Audius in the words of its makers, it is:

“a blockchain-based alternative to SoundCloud to help artists connect directly with fans and monetize their work.”

Developers of Audius claim that the protocol of the platform exists perpetually, and it controlled by a decentralised community of developers, music lovers and artists. The aim of the platform is to disrupt the traditional music sharing model that has previously been criticised due to lack of transparency and artist control. The founder of this noble platform is Sri Lankan pop star Ranidu Lankage of the popular ‘Oba Magemai’ fame. The artist received noteworthy recognition at a very tender age of 19, and chose to keep it music independent so as to have full control over it.

Lankage’s mission of establishing artist control over creative content brought him to the conclusion of incorporating it with blockchain technology, owing to its decentralisation feature as well as the transparency that it promises. Much of this was made possible by the contribution of Audius’ co-founders Roneil Rumburg and Forrest Browning, who are there technological pillars of the platforms. Apart from coming up with news ideas for the platform, Lankage has also continued to perform locally, as well as to do shows around the world in various festivals.

In the words of Lankage,

“Artists need decentralized models for music sharing, and a stake in the platforms they contribute content to. Blockchain allows Audius to do this with tokens and decentralized voting-based governance so artists have a say in how the platform evolves. It’s a very elegant model and one which, as an artist, I find immensely attractive.”