Web 3.0 designed for artists
Put yourself in the feet of a novice and aspiring artist, perhaps somebody who has recently recognized their talent through a song that blew up on social media. You know the potential is there and you have had a small taste of fame and fortune. If you play your cards right, you will have the ability to imagine new experiences, impact millions of people, and even build a dedicated following. You begin to consider your pathways for establishing a career in the music industry.
Unfortunately, the odds are stacked very high against small freelance artists in the web 2.0 age. According to some statistics, fewer than 0.0002 artists are able to build a career despite the fact that we are continually bombarded with success tales of musicians who have transformed themselves into cultural icons overnight. The sad truth is that only a select few are able to do so. You might ask yourself why? An simple reason is that small “mom-and-pop” musicians are simply kept away from the fruits of their labor by the powerful gatekeepers that are the music labels. Whether a small artist succeeds is not dependent on their following, but rather on whether some executive is able to exploit their music on large walled streaming services such as Spotify.
When we started out to build the music platform of the future, we wanted it to be accessible to everyone. We realized that for both artists and listeners, enclosed gardens were not the way to go. The present web 2.0 environment is heavily influenced by this antiquated form of music creation, discovery, and pleasure. For the new generation of brave artists, the web 3.0 world offers them an escape, with fair compensation that correlates to their talent. Gone are the days where only mass-market artists with millions of followers are able to scrape by for a living.
With Opus, and other web 3.0 streaming services, artists are able to monetize their music directly from the support of their fans. If you have a dedicated following, you are able to be paid directly through recurring streams with very little taken in the form of commission. More recently, with the popularity of non-fungible tokens, also known as NFTs, artists are able to further support themselves without relying on a mass of mainstream listeners.
Imagine releasing a limited edition copy of your tracks to your most dedicated listeners. Not only will this help the small artist with a loyal fan base, but could also benefit rising stars who will reap the rewards of their fans sharing and spreading the word. Using non fungible token representation of ownership, web 3.0 has the potential to usher in a renewed age of music. In a nostalgic homage to the 1920s, with fans sharing limited edition disks of vinyl and generating hype, artists will soon able to recreate this mutually beneficial sharing economy in the digital space. This is the reason why we are heavily focused and are looking to deploy these new experiences for all listeners and artists to enjoy.
Stay tuned to our blog to keep updated on this space!
If you have any ideas or suggestions on functionality you would like to see in the product do let us know at contact@opus.audio, we would love to hear from you.
If you want to try the opus streaming platform yourself, start now by registering yourself here: https://artist.opus.audio (designated for artists) or here: https://player.opus.audio/login (designated for listeners).