Tipping artists and offline music storage: Opus Q&A 4
As promised, here is our fourth Q&A session with all your questions. Please remember to send us more questions on our form, Discord, Telegram, or via e-mail at info@opus-foundation.org.
We’re changing the format of our updates slightly. Instead of posts dedicated entirely to announcing new artists joining us at Opus, we will include a new artist in our other regular updates. Let’s welcome the latest artist to come on board: Flooting Grooves. You can read more about him below.
Now, let’s get going with this session’s questions.
1. Are you planning to allow users to publish playlists and get paid by the listeners?
The short answer is: yes! We are definitely planning to make this option available, you can read more about this topic in our whitepaper.
2. Will users be able to download tracks and listen to them offline?
We will most likely include this option in our first version for our mobile app but not on the Opus web player. This still requires some more work, but we are confident that you will be able to listen to your favorite music offline.
3. Does the streaming model affect an artist’s payouts?
What sets Opus apart from existing music streaming platforms is the idea of giving artists the highest possible percentage of the revenue, and this goal has not changed. Right now, it is difficult to say if artists will get 97%, 95%, or slightly less, because this depends on how quickly our user base will grow and what the costs of maintaining the platform will be, but we promise to do everything we can to ensure that artists get paid fairly.
4. Will you be updating the whitepaper?
Yes, the whitepaper will be updated along with the release of the first version of the Opus platform.
5. Will subscriptions be gathered and equally split among all artists or will payment be based on how many times a song is streamed?
We will most likely use a smart contract which will distribute revenue in a manner proportional to the popularity of the artist (i.e. how many times a song is streamed). This does not change the situation much from our previous, buy-to-own model, where the payout for an artist was also dependent on how many times a song is played. We will make sure that the payouts will be fair.
6. With the streaming model, smaller artists might get paid somewhat less compared to the most popular musicians. Instead of buying their songs, will it be possible to tip them a certain amount for any song?
Tipping artists is an excellent idea! We will certainly research this and try to implement it in our platform. We would like to thank our community for giving us all sorts of suggestions, it is because of this that we receive new ideas like this one that we can start working on right away.
7. Will there be a place in the platform where we can see new uploaded songs that can give small artists a boost?
We do want to have an option like this available on the platform.
8. By switching to streaming, will Opus be similar to existing music streaming platforms?
Comparing Opus to some of the world’s most popular music streaming platforms in terms of User Experience would certainly be a great compliment and would make us very proud. What makes us different is that we will be giving artists a fair share of their revenue compared to other platforms, and allowing them to monetize their work with more ease.
Opus will be very different from other players mostly from an artist’s perspective, but we will also work hard to make the User Experience unique. We are focusing on people who are aware of the current problems in the music streaming industry and who want their favorite artists to get paid fairly for their hard work.
9. With the streaming model, how will you disrupt the music streaming industry? What will happen to decentralization and instant exchange of property? What if your competitors add an option to receive payments in cryptocurrencies?
What sets us apart is the percentage of the revenue that the artists will receive. Even if our competitors introduce cryptocurrencies to their services, they still have issues with storage and so will not be able to take such a small cut from the revenue for themselves and give the artist the vast majority.
10. Can artists remove their music from the blockchain?
If an artist decides to remove music from the platform, the key and hash of this track containing administrative information will remain on the blockchain, but it will become invisible. Users will no longer be able to listen to the track which means that it will, effectively, be deleted.
11. Are there any fees using IPFS in your case?
For now, there are no fees for using IPFS, but this could change. If we add more IPFS nodes, the owners of these nodes will most likely charge a certain amount.
12. How will songs be tied to the users?
Every time a track is played, it will be noted who played it and when. This information is necessary to figure out artist payouts and music suggestions for users based on their history.
13. What happens if Ethereum fails as a platform? What mitigation is there in place against this? Is the underlying technology platform-agnostic?
Our base is on PostgreSQL, and Ethereum is a part of that base. We are researching using the Raiden network because PostgreSQL is not fully decentralized and does not allow signing transactions to ensure that data will not be changed afterwards. We will update you on this when we finish our research.
Artist announcement
We’re changing the format of our updates slightly. Instead of posts dedicated entirely to announcing new artists joining us at Opus, we will include a new artist in our other regular updates, such as this one.
Flooting Grooves
Flooting Grooves is the solo project of Pearce van der Merwe, born in South Africa. Heavily influenced by groups like The Peaking Goddess Collective, Pink Floyd, Ozric Tentacles, Led Zeppelin, Motorpsycho, and Jethro Tull, his production is a fusion of live elements like the flute, guitar, and percussion with electronica, resulting in a melting pot of pleasurable psychedelia to the body and sooth the soul.
His introduction to the electronic dance music scene in Amsterdam led to meeting and collaborating with Ajja Leu and Daniel Symons (Dymons), producers and musicians in their own rights, later forming The Peaking Goddess Collective with Moreno Antognini (Master Margherita). This formation has changed over the years and is now comprised of Ajja, Pearce, and Dan (with guest performances from time to time).
A skilled and versatile performer and producer with a truly original sound spanning a range of styles, his psychedelic live sets are divided into three groups: FG Downtempo, FG Progressive, and FG Psychedelic (now called Groovity). Live performances of the downtempo and progressive sets are enhanced by the use of the silver flute and computer effects.
In 2008, a collaboration with Dymons called Cosmosophy was born. Their sound is breaky and eclectic. Characterized by a powerful percussive groove, it also features elements of rock, dub, and psychedelia.
Since 2014, he has added another side project to the list, called Manzaara, a collaboration with Santoor virtuoso Metehan Ciftci. Still in development, the sound is a fusion of Turkish traditional music, electronic music, jazz, funk, and other interesting influences.
Molecure (2016) is another project in collaboration with Mike Didge, a very skilled and talented didgeridoo player from South Africa. The result is an eclectic electro-acoustic fusion exploring all kinds of styles like funk, bass, and drum and bass, while staying true to psychedelic electronica. The live set moves from pure acoustic ambient vibes slowly building up to downtempo beats.
Also part of the Kaya Project live performance, Pearce shares the stage with the very talented producer, Seb Taylor, and divine vocalist, Irina Mikhaelova, bringing some floaty magic to the already incredible world fusion project.
The purpose of Flooting Grooves’ music is to give people an interesting journey that can be experienced on the dance floor or at home, creating a balance between deeper emotion and simple listening pleasure. His music will be available on Opus. In the meantime, you can follow Flooting Grooves on Facebook, Soundcloud, Bandcamp,
More coming soon…
We are positively overwhelmed by the amount of questions we get each time, so don’t forget to send us more on our form, Discord, Telegram, or via e-mail at info@opus-foundation.org. You can also track our progress on Facebook and Twitter. Be sure to watch out for the development update coming out on Monday!