What is Audius (AUDIO)?
Audius (AUDIO) is a blockchain-based decentralized music streaming platform. The project aims to give artists and curators more control over their musical creations. When artists upload content to Audius, they can produce immutable records for their work, which will be protected by a decentralized network of nodes.
Audius cuts out the middleman in the traditional music industry by connecting artists directly with their fans. Artists have sole ownership of their music and can decide how to monetize it on the platform. They can distribute their music for free or set up custom commissions for fans to access exclusive content.
Unlike other music streaming services, Audius does not receive a cut of the revenue from the artists. Music curators can receive 90% of revenue in AUDIO, Audius' native cryptocurrency. The other 10% is given to stakers who support the Audius network.
AUDIO is an ERC-20 token that also serves as a governance token in Audius. Holders can stake their AUDIO to help protect the network, participate in Audius governance, and access exclusive content. They can also earn AUDIO rewards by staking.
With the rise of music streaming platforms, listening to music has been more accessible than ever. However, artists have always faced challenges in the traditional music industry, such as low profits, transparency issues, and little control over how their content is distributed or sold. Audius aims to address these challenges by empowering music creators and helping them monetize their content through its native cryptocurrency, AUDIO.
What is Audius?
Audius is a fully decentralized music streaming platform that allows listeners to support artists directly through its native cryptocurrency, AUDIO. As of December 2021, Audius has nearly 6 million monthly unique users and is home to over 100,000 artists.
Co-founded in 2018 by Forrest Browning and Roneil Rumburg, Audius revolutionizes the traditional music industry model by removing middlemen and record label barriers. Unlike other streaming platforms, artist revenue is not determined by the number of times a song is streamed. Audius gives artists sole ownership of their music and they decide how to monetize their work. According to Audius, music curators will receive 90% of revenue in AUDIO tokens, while the remaining 10% will go to the node operators (stakers) that support the Audius network.
Audius is a layer 2 blockchain protocol initially built on an Ethereum sidechain called Red POA. Due to the increasing demand for streaming content, Audius faced scaling issues and decided to migrate its content management system to the Solana blockchain in 2020 to improve its performance. But its native cryptocurrency, AUDIO, remains on the Ethereum blockchain. AUDIO is an ERC-20 governance token that allows stakeholders to vote on proposals related to changes and updates to the network. They can also unlock exclusive features by staking AUDIO Coins.
How does Audio work?
Audius aims to solve the challenges faced by artists in the music industry, including music rights, royalties, and ownership, by giving everyone the freedom to distribute, monetize, and stream music. It eliminates the intermediaries between the artists and their public, allowing them to interact directly on the platform.
Unlike traditional channels in the music industry, Audius does not pay artists based solely on the number of times their songs are played. It also considers artist activity on the platform, how they interact with fans, and overall user engagement.
At Audius, artists can upload and distribute their songs via decentralized nodes. There are several ways for artists to monetize their audio content without sacrificing ownership. They can get AUDIO by reaching Top 5 Weekly Trending Songs Chart, Top 5 Weekly Trending Playlists, Top 10 Monthly API Apps and First Song Upload after verifying their social media accounts.
Audius also allows artists to engage with their community through artist tokens. Artist tokens give holders exclusive access to token-restricted content such as unreleased songs, remix competitions, etc. Occasionally, Audius plans to airdrop AUDIO tokens to artists based on their level of social engagement with fans and number of listens.
In the future, Audius plans to add support for USDT and other stablecoins for fans to access paid content.
WHAT IS SOUND?
The Audius Token (AUDIO) is the native cryptocurrency that powers the Audius protocol. It has three main roles in the Audius ecosystem:
Protect the network.
Act as a governance token.
Give access to exclusive features and content.
AUDIO is an ERC-20 token with an initial total supply of 1 billion and no maximum supply. As of December 2021, more than 500 million AUDIOs are already in circulation.
Security
The Audius network is protected by decentralized nodes. Anyone can become a node operator by holding and staking AUDIO tokens. The higher the stake, the higher the chance for fans to use those nodes to discover music content. By helping to execute the operations of the protocol, operators can earn AUDIO from ongoing token issuance and aggregate commission pools.
There are two types of nodes in Audius: content nodes and discovery nodes. Content nodes host, protect, and manage content on behalf of artists. Artists can also function as content nodes to host their own content, but this is optional. Discovery nodes index metadata and music uploaded to the Audius content ledger to allow fans to quickly search for artists or songs.
Network nodes will continually send snapshots of artists' work to the blockchain. This can result in immutable time-stamped logs for the content.
governance
AUDIO also serves as a governance token. As mentioned, AUDIO stakers can participate in network operations as content nodes or discovery nodes. If users want to vote on proposals for upcoming network upgrades, they can gain governance power by continually creating value for the network.
In Audius, stakers do not necessarily have to run a node before they can express their opinion. The community is encouraged to share their thoughts on the protocol. An AUDIO token gives them a vote. AUDIO rewards align with incentives for artists, fans, and node operators so they can enjoy a decentralized music streaming experience.
Feature Access
The AUDIO token allows fans and artists to have access to exclusive features on the platform. Artists can leverage AUDIO to grow and better engage their audience. By staking AUDIO, artists can access content distribution tools to distribute their artist tokens to fans. Fans who have artist tokens can unlock exclusive access to their content and unique experiences, like listening to unreleased songs, joining remix competitions, and more.
Users who have a certain amount of AUDIO in their Audius wallet can unlock 4 VIP levels to enjoy additional benefits. The more AUDIO you have, the higher the VIP level. After reaching the minimum threshold for a VIP level, users can earn a profile badge that gives them access to new features as soon as they are released. The requirements and benefits of each level can be changed through community governance.
How is Audius different from other streaming platforms?
One of the main differences between Audius and other streaming platforms like Spotify is that it takes advantage of blockchain technology to work in a decentralized way. This allows artists and content creators to share their music with more control over their own content.
According to the co-founders, 90% of the platform's revenue goes directly to the artists. Compared to the general figures of the traditional music industry, where only 12% goes to artists, Audius allows them to make more reasonable profits.
Another difference is that Audius includes AUDIO token holders, whether they are artists or fans, in the decision-making process of the network. Having an AUDIO token gives them a vote to participate in the governance of the protocol. They can vote for or against any proposed change on the platform, something we can't find on other music streaming services.
Audius also demonstrates that it has the ability to help artists cultivate their audience and community. It is the first music streaming platform to partner with TikTok, a video streaming social media platform. This partnership allows TikTok users to add songs from the Audius platform to their videos directly. In addition to TikTok, Audius has also integrated with the DeFi blockchain game "Land" in the form of an FM radio tower in the game's metaverse, which could help promote artists.