Music Ally first wrote about blockchain music startup Audius in August 2018, when it raised $5.5m of funding – traditional VC funding, not an ICO – to build “a blockchain-based alternative to Spotify or SoundCloud”.
It launched its public beta in September 2019 as a “censorship-resistant, community-controlled” music streaming platform, complete with deadmau5 as an advisor, inviting artists to upload their own music and get paid (in the future) in ‘Loud’ tokens for its usage.
It quickly found itself under scrutiny over copyright issues: specifically the difficulties of removing copyrighted music that had been uploaded without permission. Still, Audius has pressed on with the development of its service, including recently the launch of its iPhone app – previously, it had been web-only.
The app lets people stream music uploaded to Audius in 320kbps quality – the company’s App Store listing makes a point of contrasting this with established streaming services like Pandora, Spotify and SoundCloud. The app has even got some love from Apple: the official App Store Twitter account, which has 4.5 million followers, tweeted: “If you’re a musician, get a load of this amazing new tool to share your craft. If you’re a music lover, take on a fresh new way to discover artists.”
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