Hello brave friends, and welcome to my first article on Publish0x.

I'll be honest: I just wanted to share my music. I'm still going to, but now as an afterthought. No one is asking for it, but for you random adventurous time-wasters you'll can find the treasure buried six feet under a rant about a problem much bigger than musicians getting noticed. As much as I just want to self promote, I think it's critically important for myself and others who are working towards sustainable careers as creators to experience and share emerging platforms that have the potential to push the industry in better directions. 

From past to present I've only championed the bandcamp model of online music distribution. They managed to break down some significant barriers for artists. T'was a time when self releasing music was much less apparent or prevalent, and could clearly use a technological boost for individual artists and small labels as well. Even hardcore DIYers were looking for a distribution path to everyone's iPhone as pressingly as phonographs. Then bandcamp came along. Musicians of all variety found a place where we could sign up for free, release our music as both physical and digital products, and at any time, any price. Giving up 15% of sales for that continues to be fair. The fact they could check all those big empty boxes and also have an overall aesthetic that was not only good, but leading, makes them still stand out today.

Unfortunately, downloading music to a computer or device has clearly been on the decline for quite a while, and I can't be the only one is still not thrilled about the way Spotify has changed the game. While it's easier than ever to get distributed to all the major platforms (the vom inducing list includes Google Play + Youtube (so Google,) iTunes + Apple Music (a theme emerges)) I see the numbers come in and think that if 5% of the people streaming to my music paid $5 for the two or three most popular releases it would be thousands of dollars, instead of tens of dollars. My math isn't based on total streams, it's not even math, but rather seeing how much of the globe represents streams + Spotify stats. There's still money to be made on Spotify as is, but it's offensively disproportionate, and most of us are barely getting table scraps.

Mmmm, table scraps...

I've been sniffing around for something that competes in this streaming age, but with the transparency, flexibility, and UI that brings the kind of artist-forward platform bandcamp developed. I see wayy less traffic on bandcamp, but tally wayyy more bandacamp $$$$ at the end of the year. Honestly, why should I be content with the status quo?

I see the numbers come in and think "if 5% of the people streaming to my music paid $5 for the two or three most popular releases it would be thousands of dollars, instead of tens of dollars.

So yeah, I want an alternative, and we sure as hell deserve one that works. That must be possible, right? Hang on, cuz I'm a roller coaster of optimism and pessimism. I expect more to go wrong than does, but I stay fully aware that pessimism wins every time if you never try, so I try. We need to try. Well, the right combination of us needs to try. As frustrated as I get about this all I can do is scheme and dream. I'm no developer so argue away if you think I'm wrong here, but I think that making the right streaming service is perhaps less than half of what it takes to succeed. That's the pot, but we have to stone-soup as a community for this to feed everybody. What good is the perfect recipe if there's no ingredients (artists) or hungry mouths (that's everyone else) to devour the feast? 

We've got to put our music on these emergent future-thinking and artist-conscious startups. We've got to drive traffic to them, and last but certainly not least: we have to hope it's a great experience for visitors. If there's a snowball's chance in hell of taking some of the wind out of Spotify's sails, it's going to take everyone. Have I established a sense of importance? I hope so, because we're maybe being given our first chance to David that Goliath's ass.

So let's move this discussion to some blockchain minded developers who are trying to throw something at the wall that just might stick. I've signed up for two this week, Audius and Emanate. I have to say, there's potential for everyone (artists included) on each. 

Emanate (MN8) is really new and a little raw behind the scenes, but totally polished enough on the surface to deserve some attention at this very moment. Building on EOSIO, they seek to create a decentralized network for artists, labels and fans alike. Signing up as an artists is not as formal as you may expect, but the platform is looking and responding great for an alpha version. The selling point for artists is getting paid for every six seconds a track is played. It's transparent, and you can see it processing in real time.

I think their big challenge will be getting a user base to support and sustain their model, but the media was asking Spotify how they were going to turn a profit for years. Hopefully MN8 gets as long of a runway to get its baby off the ground.

Audius is a better sign up experience, and also boasting an even more polished look and feel. Then I start to scratch my head, as it's really counter intuitive when trying to navigate away from the artists they are using to showcase the site. They're featuring some good hip hop, but I want to know where the freaks hang. Well, first impressions are more important than ever. Consumer expectations are even higher. So how are they pitching this to creator and consumer? Well it wasn't as obvious as I found Emanate to be from the outset, but they have public code on Github, and have invited users to run a node and get rewarded in the Audius' native token.

I'm assuming artist get paid per stream in some formula, but I couldn't find that info while looking on their site, so I don't want to assume that's in place or on the table. I'd love to know if someone has a clear understanding of how that works. It is stated that a certain percentage of their unique token is spent or created on the site and some % is to be pooled for stakers. How does Audius make money? Well by taking some, i presume. Audius has an app on the iStore, so... I can't speak to that either, but it seems like they are developing swiftly, and with a strong sense of direction. They're looking good, hopefully worth keeping eyes on, or signing up for their public beta now. Wishing success in their efforts to revolutionize streaming via another new token.

I think I've exhausted my rant at this point, so I better cram in that self promotion before I lose my own attention! So here it is, some ambient electronic music I recently made, released exclusively (for the time being) on these previously mentioned streaming services. I'm calling this project V-H-MESS, since it best accompanies the visuals to Basement Vibes analog video-art. I hope you enjoy.

https://emanate.live/v-h-mess/dessert-drone 

https://emanate.live/v-h-mess/space:-the-final-drone 

(and again over at:)

https://audius.co/vhmess/desert-drone-50039

https://audius.co/vhmess/space-the-final-drone-50040

Thanks for reading, extra thanks for the listen or follow! 

-Gord

(P.S. as I greeted you with "brave friends..." I realized that you either know, or you need to know that Brave browser is the best thing to happen to internetting for both content creators and those just crawling the ol' web. Sign up for Brave browser and enjoy an ad-free internet, all while supporting your favorite content creators, and us directly with this link!