Blockchain

How blockchain could help musicians make a living from music

July 7, 2016By rightstech

In the decade and a half since Napster, it’s got harder for musicians to make a living, at least from recorded music. Falling CD sales, illegal downloads, the low payments from legal music streaming platforms, and a shift towards buying single tracks rather than whole albums all play their part.

Recently, a number of music industry projects have turned to a particular technology as a possible solution to these problems. These include Mycelia, launched by singer, songwriter and producer Imogen Heap, and Dot Blockchain Music, launched by PledgeMusic founder Benji Rogers. Then there’s Ujo Music, Blokur, Aurovine, Resonate, Peertracks, Stem and Bittunes, which already claims users in 70 countries. What links these projects is that they all are based on blockchain.

Source: How blockchain could help musicians make a living from music

At W3C Event, Industry Seeks to Weave Blockchains into New Web

July 5, 2016By rightstech

Armed with sky-high expectations and seemingly boundless enthusiasm for how tech could reinvent industry in the digital age, the “blockchain” industry has been overwhelmed with blockchains.

Not only are there multiple open public blockchain projects, but legacy institutions and corporates are building exclusive permissioned blockchains. So far this year, there have been specialty blockchains created for everything from credit default swaps to managing global supply chains. It’s unclear how these blockchains will need to interact with each other in the future to prove its benefits.

Source: At W3C Event, Industry Seeks to Weave Blockchains into New Web – CoinDesk

The mad rush to own the rights to the blockchain

July 5, 2016By rightstech

Scanning global patent registries turns up dozens of active claimants filing patents on blockchain tech, including teams from major corporations. If granted, anyone who wanted to use a blockchain technology like any one successfully patented would have to pay that patent holder a license fee. And with major banking institutions looking to get in on the blockchain action, the money involved in those licenses would likely not be inconsiderable.

While proving a patent-level novel use of a technology is difficult, this has not stopped a digital gold rush from popping up around the blockchain. Banks, once threatened by the blockchain’s potential to do away with swathes of their business have instead started looking for ways to control the tech, making enormous investments in blockchain application development.

Source: The mad rush to own the rights to the blockchain | Fusion

Blockchain content sharing app LBRY declares independence

July 4, 2016By rightstech

LBRY, the decentralised content sharing and publishing platform owned by its users, has released a Beta version of its app, coinciding with more content deals and a “July 4th Declaration of Independence from big media”. LBRY said today’s old order comprises, “the major record labels, book publishers, and movie studios that have managed to cling to their fiefdoms despite the potential of the internet to connect independent artists directly to their fans.

“It’s expensive to store and serve a bunch of content, so the market is dominated by the likes of Google’s YouTube, Apple’s iTunes, and Amazon’s Kindle Store. By combining several new open-source technologies and key innovations, LBRY is able to cut out the middlemen. The result is a platform that no one controls but everyone can access – just like the Internet itself,” said a statement.

Source: Blockchain content sharing app LBRY declares independent from Google, Apple and Amazon

Industry research papers highlight blockchain technology’s disruptive potential

July 4, 2016By rightstech

The potential uses for blockchains in all of their various forms are piling up, and everywhere you turn another multinational corporation, industry organization, central bank, or government has come out with a research paper extolling the benefits of blockchains, distributed ledger technology, and even Bitcoin itself.

Not having a blockchain strategy today is like not having an internet strategy at the turn of the century. If your corporation or group uses documents or keeps records in any official way, someone has come up with a way for blockchains to improve the efficiency and trustworthiness of your process.

Source: Industry research papers highlight blockchain technology’s disruptive potential » Brave New Coin

Blockchain Breakthrough: Peerplays Creates Open-Source Fee Sharing Module

July 4, 2016By rightstech

After a successful first round of ICO funding, Peerplays announced today that they have innovated the Blockchain space with the creation of an open-source fee sharing module, allowing any Graphene-based Blockchain to distribute profits directly to its token holders.

“Peerplays is aiming to be the first truly Decentralized Autonomous Cooperative (DAC) and we have just added a major piece to the puzzle,” said Jonathan Baha’i, President of BunkerChain Labs and the Blockchain technology consultant for Peerplays, in a press release.

Source: Blockchain Breakthrough: Peerplays Creates Open-Source Fee Sharing Module

IBM Opens Blockchain Garage in New York City

June 28, 2016By rightstech

IBM has announced the opening of a new office for blockchain coders in a New York City neighborhood better known for its art galleries and boutique stores than for computer programmers.

Headquartered in the SoHo offices of Galvanize, the workspace is the latest of IBM’s Bluemix Garages, physical workshopping destinations that provide a venue for its technology consulting services.

Source: IBM Opens Blockchain Garage in New York City – CoinDesk

Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton Pledges Support for Blockchain

June 28, 2016By rightstech

Presumptive US presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has thrown her support behind blockchain tech applications in the public sector.

Clinton, who is expected to receive the presidential nomination from the US Democratic Party next month, released a broad technology and innovation agenda yesterday in which her campaign argued that US public policy should include work with blockchain.

Source: Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton Pledges Support for Blockchain – CoinDesk

TOTEM: Bad Medicine, No Spoonful of Sugar

June 22, 2016By rightstech

alan_graham Already, someone alive today, will launch in the next 2 years what is essentially the most powerful free music sharing service akin to a Spotify-like service, except unlicenced, because it will enter the world anonymously as part of some likely combination of blockchain technology, magnet links, torrents, smart contracts, AI, and so on. You can’t take it down and you can’t sue it because no one owns it or operates it. You can’t file suit against a bot and you ain’t seen “free” until you’ve seen what this thing will do to the entire market.

If there were such a thing as a singularity of copyright infringement and piracy, I’d say we were at the Outer Event Horizon, nearing the no escape zone.

Source: Guest Post: Bad Medicine, No Spoonful of Sugar | MUSIC • TECHNOLOGY • POLICY