Fluxorin: An artist-oriented decentralised music platform
The relationship between the music industry and the Internet has always been an ambivalent one. Music has long played an important part in the online economy, and the industry as a whole has benefited from the added exposure and new distribution channels. Yet this cooperation also gave rise to, or at least amplified, many of the industry's most pressing current issues and controversies. Piracy, and the enforcement of copyright law, is one such long-standing problem that has hurt not only music publishers but also the artists themselves.
More recently, the emergence of subscribed music streaming services such as Apple Music or Spotify has been greeted with deep ambiguity. On the one hand, it offers a new and lucrative way to harness the online audience's passive listening habits, on the other hand, it is often seen as threatening to more traditional industry players and unfair to the musicians, who receive a very small share of the profits.
This last part is a very serious practical concern, as discouraging artists from participating in the industry built around their work would be crippling in the long run. Yet it is nothing new, as from the beginning of the industry's history the artists depended on intermediaries to ensure that they could make a living. This dependence has been made more problematic for them by the complexity and opacity of ownership rights and profit-sharing arrangements. Fluxorin offers a new approach to all those problems by creating an artist-centric platform based on blockchain technology.
How will the Fluxorin platform work?
Fluxorin's solution relies primarily on smart contracts. It uses the Distributed Autonomous Label (DAL) system to make tracking the ownership of any music piece uploaded to the platform's blockchain totally automatic and transparent. The smart contracts will incorporate the exact percentages of ownership and therefore also the revenue shares tied to the piece, which may include the creators themselves (in whatever proportion they decide on among themselves) and, optionally, their promoters, labels, and even fans who may be rewarded for attracting other fans. This ensures that artists will remain in control of their work and receive their share of royalty payments and other profits.
Users of the platform will be able to use a utility coin called The Flux Token (TFT), stored in their FLUXORIN digital ledgers, to access any of the tracks stored on the blockchain through a special Pay per Play (PPC) smart contract. Listeners will be charged automatically for every playback for an amount that is then distributed directly to the owners of the piece in accordance with the DAL, without any (unwanted) middlemen in the way. The blockchain will ensure a full and open record of all transactions, making it possible to eventually implement AI-based, machine learning-enhanced music recommendations. In addition to being used on the platform, TFT will also be available for trading on exchanges.
Who wins with Fluxorin?
The most obvious winners here will be the artists, who for the first time in the history of the modern music industry may receive up to 100% of the profits from their tracks being played on the platform. They will also be guaranteed total transparency and reliability. But traditional industry players such as recording labels may win from this as well, by adding songs they own and getting paid the same way as artists, without the usual overhead. Assuming the platform takes off, the whole industry and the attached culture may benefit in the long run due to added incentives to pursue a career as a musician, which may just make all the difference for some artists who would otherwise simply not bother. This would be particularly valuable for those at the starting point of their careers.
Although existing streaming platforms are much more tilted in the favour of the listeners, the emotional value of supporting artists (and so encouraging them to continue creating) may prove to be more powerful for some. In addition, some fans may receive a part of the revenue stream for recommending songs to others. TFT holders would also be in position to share in the platform's success, as it will have a lot of room for expansion if it manages to take off.
What are the pros and cons of this project?
The company has seized upon an emotive yet also practically very significant issue that has a lot of resonance within the music industry and the fan community. Smart contracts, with their transparency and immutability, really may be the solution to the problem of artists' royalties. As such, Fluxorin stands to make inroads on a rebounding market. However, it suffers from vagueness and lack of some very important information on the expected operation of the platform and its business model. This may be because it is still at an early stage in its development, and is open to further elaboration; however, communication is crucial towards attracting support.
Fluxorin must also contend with rival music industry blockchain projects such as Musicoin, which seem to offer many of the same advantages and more. Aside from attracting the support of specific musicians, labels and promoters, what might give FLUXORIN a competitive edge would be its eagerness to support further developments that would add to the platform, including ones that may be done by third parties, from integrated hardware to additional on-platform services.
Token sale details
The private sale of TFT will continue until 27th June, with a public pre-sale and main ICO expected to take place later this year.
A new venue for online music that serves the creators
The music industry in its current state offers unique opportunities for innovators. It is still recovering from the early 2000s collapse, and is open to new ideas, as can be seen in its embrace of streaming services. At the same time, the widespread dissatisfaction with that model among both publishers and artists, as well as many of the fans, is well-known. They are not going to abandon it any time soon – but they may well be interested in other alternatives.
Although it is based on an interesting idea that offers an innovative solution to a widely-acknowledged problem, Fluxorin may be taking too many gambles to be a truly successful alternative. By radically altering the usual balance in the music industry in favour of the artists, it risks alienating the other truly indispensable part of it – the fans, who might not be willing to pay for every playback when cheaper and more familiar alternatives are readily available. Without their support, the project would lose any advantages it may offer to other parties. With it, and assuming the actual technology behind it is produced and works as advertised, Fluxorin may become a valuable element in the reviving music industry ecosystem, creating a venue that would support musicians who might otherwise give up. That would fulfill its main mission, and allow the platform to expand.
Links
Website: https://www.fluxorin.io/
WhitePaper: https://bit.ly/2JkSVc6
Telegram: https://t.me/FluxorinICO
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FLUXORINio-197670007676510
Twitter: https://twitter.com/fluxorin_io
ANN: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4361686.0
Author: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=980049
Bitcointalk username: the1arty
eth: 0xda2574CFeB7De808c08E542000E62C4949ee3233
Disclaimer
This review by Bonanza Kreep is all opinion and analysis, not investment advice.