Music service eMusic has been flying the flag for blockchain technology since mid-2018, when it announced plans for a new music distribution platform that – get your blockchain bingo card and blotter out for this – “cuts out the bloated intermediaries”. Later that year it announced plans to raise up to $70m for the new strategy with a sale of ‘EMU’ tokens, with CEO Tamir Koch telling Music Ally that it would focus on independent artists: a blockchain-powered equivalent to the direct deals Spotify and Apple were exploring with artists at the time. Now today eMusic has announced the full launch of its ‘Digital eMU’ token, with Koch claiming that it “is now here to reinvent music distribution. It creates a brand-new commercial model built on fair compensation and transparent flow of funds between fans, artists and music services”. It’ll work by getting fans to buy eMU tokens on an exchange called Bibox, with a base price of $0.39 per token and the promise that “each token will always buy at least one song on the eMusic store”. Fans will also be able to earn rewards from artists in exchange for actions like sharing music and reviewing it, while “in the longer term” artists will also be able to upload their own content to eMusic as part of the system.
Music Ally’s next Learn Live webinar will help you understand what’s required for artists to thrive in new international markets!