Published in · 6 min read · Nov 7, 2016
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Today, November 7th, marks a turning point in Ujo’s history. Due to ongoing maintenance costs, the time has come for us to bid farewell to our beloved Alpha project. Instead of spending time maintaining the prototype, which fulfilled its purpose, we are knuckling down to build an open platform for all artists.
We had grand ideas about how we can use blockchain technology to alleviate artists’ pain points. We were not the only ones who started seeing the writing on the wall. The Ujo team joined with Grammy award winning artist, Imogen Heap’s initial Mycelia experiment as both wanted a more fair and open music industry. Imogen posted Tiny Human to her website along with all relevant metadata for the song to see what new music services could do with it. In collaboration with Heap, we were able to showcase the power of the blockchain in getting Tiny Human up for sale on the newly launched Ethereum blockchain. Ujo and Imogen Heap then made history in enabling the first song ever to demonstrate the transparency and real world benefits of smart contracts for the music industry with automated royalty payments to all stakeholders. (thanks to Simon de la Rouviere and Mike Goldin). The contract code is available here.
It started off a bit rough as we were limited by a number of factors: from time constraints to the capabilities of smart contracts in those early stages. But after a few brainstorming sessions on how to attach several licensing policies, a user interface was designed, and we had a functioning prototype to show the different stakeholders involved in Imogen’s production! (Thanks to Vlad Todirut and John McDowall).
- The smart contract received 8506 transactions in total. Most of these were from an internal oracle in the smart contract that had to be kept updated on the USD <-> ETH price, in order to keep the song being sold at a value of ~$1USD. An oracle is a trusted source of information that feeds into an Ethereum smart contract.
- 148 people had purchased “Tiny Human” from Imogen, earning “$133.20” USD. However, this really amounts to ~$1563 earned due to the ~2,500% increase in Ether price since the prototype launched.
- The purchase license price went from 1 ETH to 0.06 ETH due to currency fluctuations.
- Ujo took no cut — 0%. The blockchain allows for direct payments between involved parties.
- Over 10,000 people have visited UjoMusic.com in an effort to learn more about how we are changing, upsetting or revolutionizing the music industry.
-We achieved the goal of making the music industry more aware about the power of blockchain technology to aid artists. We were featured in:
- Forbes: How Blockchain Startups Are Disrupting The $15 Billion Music Industry
- Production Music Association: The Future of Music Monetization
- Arts.gov: Creativity Connects: Trends and Conditions Affecting U.S. Artists
- Fortune: Blockchain Could be Music’s Next Disruptor
- Music Ally:Blockchain Platform Ujo Music Opening Up in Early 2017
- Rights Tech: The Innovation Engine
- CNN Bitcoin Technology May Revolutionize the Music Industry
- Deloitte: Blockchain — Enigma. Paradox. Opportunity
- Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin Is Changing Money, Business, and the World
- Don Tapscott: How the blockchain is changing money and business
- We worked with a team across the globe, situated in Europe, North America and Africa. At some point, one of the team members even worked from a tent.
Since the launching of the prototype, we’ve had the privilege to discuss with many of you in the industry about blockchain technology and its power for use in the creative industries. We’ve learned a lot. To make things clear: we’re not here to ‘disrupt’ the music industry. Ujo Music’s intentions are to make more music in the world and make more musicians a stable and reliable income. We believe in a world where there is more music, more artists, and everyone is paid fairly for their creations.
We received an email recently with so much passion that it truly moved the entire team. It read:
“I have a vision for a one stop shop for artists where they can release their music on a global scale without interference of a label, A&R, publishers, management, etc… so they can release their material as intended and everybody is protected, paid and accredited correctly… I guess I don’t really know why I am sending you an email but after reading up about it and visiting your webpage I am fired up to make a change even if it will ruin me. I am done with sitting at the sidelines. I want to start something new, fresh, transparent and honest. ”
We know why you’re emailing us. It is time for change. We’ve been promised change over and over again. Yet every solution we are given is just a reskinning of the same cat. The solutions end up conforming to the power holders, leaving the end users with the short end of the stick.
So how exactly will Ujo manage your rights, assist with licensing, and help you get paid? We are starting with problems we know we can solve right now:
1. Build an amazing open platform for artists with focus on great UX
2. Enlist independent musicians to license and contract a fresh catalogue of music on Ujo
3. Provide the artists with a persistent identity that they they are in control of and the ability to license their works on their own terms.
In the coming weeks, we will detail from a technical perspective how we can prove that blockchains can work for music beyond timestamping and provenance.
Technology is a great enabler and can power a revolution — but it cannot drive the revolution. One thing blockchains will never be able to do is remove the human element of negotiations and politics. The music industry is incredibly complicated and pretending that the blockchain is a magic wand to fix all issues is foolish. For that, we need you, the artists, that care about making a difference — “even if it will ruin me”.
Want to see what the future of music looks like? We still have much to create together. To the artists, the fans, and the technologists, keep listening.
If you find yourself with a passion that feels stuck due to the complexities of the music industry and producing music where you either own all of the rights or have produced it solo, please reach out to us.
You just might make the perfect candidate for the pilot of Ujo Music.
Thank you to all who have journeyed alongside us thus far — promoting the ideas of fairness & transparency in the music industry. It’s exciting to know we aren’t alone in this.
