Audius - Decentralized Music Platform | Crypto Academy / S5W3 | Homework Post for @wahyunahrul
We are currently beginning to experience the usefulness of Blockchain in many sectors of the worlds economy. The concept of Blockchain is to eliminate the middle men who in most cases make the most of the money while the real owners of a work are like sacrificial goats. Blockchain attempts to put a stop to the idea of "monkey is working but baboo is eating". Decentralized music platform like Audius is putting the power back to the real owners of music's removing the influence of record labels.
WHAT IS AUDIUS.
Audius is a decentralized music streaming platform that allow music makers to directly monetize their works on the platform without the need of a middle man.
In my very opinion, I think that the presence of Audius in the music industry will change things around in the music industry.
1: Power will now reside on the artist.
With the removal of record labels and the big fishes in the music industry, Artist are now directly connected to their listeners. It gives the artist direct access to profit on any of his production instead of the current nom where the record labels are fed fat by the effort of the artist.
2: Removal Of Censorship.
One benefit of decentralized music platform is that it is free from censorship. In some countries, certain music are banned from public consumption, however using Blockchain platforms like Audius an artist can add a voice by producing music of choice. Listeners as well can choose and decide on music to listen to. In this way, people's right to freedom of expression is achieved.
3: Wider Reach.
With a Decentralized music platform music can be monetized across wider sphere without national impediments. Also with Audius an artist can choose target audience.
New ways to earn.
The buzz on NFT market offers artist and music lovers another way to earn. When an artist turns his album or music into a non-fungible token. It allows collectors to invest in it hoping to resell at later time.
Summary.
Audius as a decentralized music platform adds value to the music industry. By removing middle men like record labels, they bring the artist closer to their fans and listeners. Most of all it enhances their revenue. Being decentralized also abolishes censorship which has eaten on the right of people for freedom of expression and enjoyment of choice music. With Audius, an artist can aim at a target audience, being in control of who listens to his production. There are more ways to monetize content and introduce business with contents using NFTs.
The entire idea of Decentralization is to ensure the removal of central control. When a platform is Decentralized every holder makes an input to the smooth running of the platform. The method of governance employed by Audius shows an application of Decentralization.
Through governance, holders of Audio token effect change in the Audius ecosystem by making proposals on-chain. The governance allows power to reside on the community to shape possible future iterations within the platform. It is this democratic dispensation of Audius governance that makes it a fully decentralized platform.
Proposals are like bills passed to suggest future amendment or addition needed to be made in the ecosystem. In other for the proposal to be binding, the majority of the nodes having stake on the platform has to vote for the proposal either "for" or against. According to Audius governance discription, at least 5% of the entire nodes that staked coin within the ecosystem must participate in the voting and at least above 50% of participants must vote "for" the proposal.
As at the present, on-chain proposals are only made by nodes that are running on the platform. There are possibility for expansion in the future accommodating non-nodes to participate in on-chain proposals as promised by Audius platform and that will be if a proposal is made to that respect.
Aside from the on-chain proposals, every holder of audio coin can add a voice by giving off-chain proposals. This can be done through their discord handle. In the discord handle, everyone can make a proposal of any possible iterations or feedbacks through Audius governance forum. This suggestions are discussed indepth within the forum and a resolution will be reached. Thereafter, a running node will present the resolution as a proposal on-chain. This will then be voted for or against on-chain.
Summary.
In my opinion Audius governance is fully decentralized. The off chain votes on proposals makes every holder and lovers of the platform to make inputs, this inputs however, are not just ceremonial but are useful and binding when they get majority acceptance. By allowing people to freely contribute in this manner makes Audius governance less reserved for the few.
Final accepted and well debated proposal are made available on-chain for final voting. We can therefore say that the power of control resides on every member within the ecosystem.
To participate in the governance of Audius ecosystem and vote on-chain requires that you must have staked a good amount in USD your audio coin. Just like every other platform using proof of stake concept, there are limit threshold to which a user desiring to stake must invest. For Audius, the minimum amount is $200,000 for "discovery node" and the maximum can span up to $7 million USD. Another method of staking is the "content node" with the same minimum requirement of investment but maximum of 10 million. As you can see, not everyone can afford this whooping amount in other to become a node. However there are other ways one can stake, that is by adding fund to an already existing pool called services.
The above explanation highlights the two ways of staking in Audius. If you can not become a node, then you can delegate your coin to an existing pool called services.
1• Become A Node
To become a discovery or content node requires that you have a stake minimum of $200k. You can join this service by simply adding your audio coin worth of the above amount to participate.
To stake as node, go to services button and locate "register new services."
The next screen outlines the minimum amount requirement. You can proceed if you hold such amount worth of audio coin in USD. For experimental purpose I proceeded.
Next screen requires authorization from metamask wallet.
The entire process displayed error because I am are not qualified for the node role.
To qualify, there are basic requirements including listed hardware requirements. Your computer should be up to
- 8 vCPU
- 16 gb of ram
- 250 gb SSD
For discovery node and same requirement but with 2000 SSD for content node. There are setup instructions that can be viewed at Audius Docs to setup your node .
2• Become A Delegator.
As a Delegator , you can delegate your fund to an already established services known as operators.
Go to services, choose "delegate."
The minimum requirement is listed, $5000.
Next click on delegate .
You will be redirected to metamask in other to authorize the transaction. A service fee will be charged to participate in staking.
If you have fund in your metamask wallet, the worth will be deducted.
Summary.
Staking in Audius can be achieved in two ways. You can choose to create a service by becoming a node or you can delegate your token to an already established services. If you want to be a delegator, then choose a service of your choice and add liquidity by delegating your token. The staking must meet the minimum threshold of $5000.
The both process involves holding coin in your wallet and linking your Audius account to metamask.
How To Connect metamask wallet to Audius.
From the Audius template click on the connect wallet button as shown below.
Follow the prompt as indicated below.
Once done, your wallet will be connected to Audius. A successful pop up message will indicate if you have successfully added your wallet.
A well connected wallet will display as shown below.
From the web template of Audius.co locate "sign up."
You will be asked to enter your email to sign up. Then click "continue".
In the next screen you will create your personal password. Follow creteria for the password then continue.
After creating the password, next will be to create a preferred username. This will be your personal profile. You can add your image to set it up. To proceed to next window, click on continue .
In the next window, you can add your social media handle or manually create a presence in the platform. I am not an artist and do not have a fan base, so I chose to add up my profile manually.
Lastly, you will need to add up at least three artist on the platform to complete setting up the profile.
We are done.
Summary.
We have shown step by step on how to create an account on Audius platform. After creating account we can enjoy listening to music right away. This is a mobile template, a desktop template is the same process.
Now let's look at the main features observable in the Audius.co web template.
On the web template, we will be greeted with these features as shown in the image below.
OVERVIEW.
This feature gives an overview of the internal operation of the ecosystem. You can observe active stake in USD, annual estimated reward in percentage. Proposals, top addresses.
A node can also register from here.
ANALYTICS.
This feature shows charts and graphical analysis of the internal operation like the monthly API calls, Total staked. It equally provide on demand data like top tracks, top albums, top 3rd party apps etc. There are options to choose whatever period we want to get it's data.
Some of the things seen on the Analytics page.
SERVICES.
This feature lists the services of operator nodes available within the ecosystem to which an individual desiring to stake could join.
See list of services in the Image below.
GOVERNANCE.
Within this feature one can see list of all the proposals, the one that has been passed and the one that failed.
Summary.
The features seen on the web template makes it easy to navigate within the ecosystem. Other's provide on-chain data, and yet others allow for staking.
On the top right we can see where from to enter our wallet. Beside the wallet icon, we will see staked. This icon highlights in USD our staked coin value.
As we have discussed above, there are two running nodes performing the many operations of the ecosystem. The two nodes also works hand in hand when you make an upload.
When you make an upload of your music, it is received by a content node. The content node will transcode it and give it a unique reference code for identity.
Two other content nodes on the network will replicate the process for verification. Then the music will be published on-chain as authentic and a metadata will be attached to the profile that uploaded the music, something like an ownership right.
Once the data is published by the content nodes, it then will be picked up by the discovery node and indexed.
This last activity completes the upload. To a content creator what is seen is the processing period as it counts, once the data shows complete we agree that we have a successful upload of our content.
Summary.
Behind the scenes both nodes- the discovery and content nodes collaborate to make an upload successful.
Uploading a song on Audius is as simple as just dragging and dropping it.
Go to the upload content page drag and drop your made audio from your computer as shown below. Your audio will be added. Then click next to proceed.
Next, you will fill up the genre, mood and discription as indicated by the template. See image below.
Once done, click on the continue button to complete upload. Wait for the data to load and you should get the "complete" response to show that you have successfully uploaded the track.
As shown in the above images, I made a song I titled "sample 1"
Now let's check if my song has been recorded in the ecosystem. I will be using an explorer.
Goto Audius.co or simply open your app, type in your username in the search explorer above.
As seen in the above image, I typed in my username mobibliss. I was taken to my profile. From my profile, I can now check in my track
I clicked on it to access my profile.
Taada !! There is my song ! I am an artist!
Summary.
Uploading a song on Audius network is as simple as drag and drop. Once the song is uploaded, it is added to your profile. Using a search explorer you can confirm the upload.
I have fulfilled all the requirements of this task.
Audius is a Decentralized music platform built on a Blockchain. The presence of this platform is changing the way music creators monetize and connect with their fans. As a fully decentralized platform intermediaries are removed allowing artist to make the most of their production. 90% of an artist revenue goes to him while the node operators take 10% and none goes to the platform.
Audius governance system allows for full Decentralization. With their discord forums, users can make suggestions of possible upgrades off-chain. After debate on those suggestions the widely accepted idea can be added as a proposal on-chain. The proposal will be voted by at least 5% of the entire nodes and must have 50% "yes" to be passed.
You can participate in staking by either becoming a node or a Delegator.
We are still witnessing innovative approaches on Blockchain. Audius is another good concept with wonderful project. As more and more people get to know the platform the more we can expect good yield from it's native token audio.
- All images are obtained from Audius.co templates and Audius App.