An internationally renowned DJ has the traditional record companies聽in his sights聽with a new platform which will pay artists fairly聽and immediately in cryptocurrency.
Southampton-born Gareth Emery made his name producing and spinning聽trance and house tracks聽around the world聽and is now setting out to disrupt the legacy music industry through Choon.
Independent artists聽can use it to upload their music, share it with others and directly be paid 80 per cent of the proceeds from the streaming of their material.
The crypto enthusiast says聽the lack of聽intermediaries makes it a better bet for artists than traditional methods despite聽the volatile nature of cryptocurrencies.
鈥淭he existing music industry has set the bar so low in terms of paying people,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f I stream on Spotify today I probably won鈥檛 get paid for a year or even two because it鈥檚 all done on six-monthly accounting periods. It鈥檚 madness.
鈥淏ecause of this the amount artists will be getting paid from us, even if the price of Notes 鈥� our token 鈥� were to completely collapse by 90 per cent, would still probably be more than they are from Spotify.
鈥淚f a major crash doesn鈥檛 happen they鈥檒l be coming out many hundreds of times better.鈥�
He continued: 鈥�95 per cent of money from artists鈥� royalties ends up in the hands of middlemen. It鈥檚 streaming services and existing legacy download services who take loads [of money], along with publishers, record labels and copyright societies.
鈥淭hey are all people who, for the most part, don鈥檛 need to be there anymore. We offer a direct payment from listener to artist.鈥�
The platform, which is looking to expand its artist catalogue, has around 500 already on board and only works with independent artists rather than record companies.
Choon鈥檚 innovation extends to Smart Record Contracts which simplifies music contracts, licensing and payments by securely storing the information on the blockchain.
This means, for example, that if several people write a song, rather than one of them getting paid and having to then figure out payment for the others, all sign a Smart Record Contract and get automatically paid correctly and quickly.
鈥淚n building Choon I wanted to take on a really big challenge and say there鈥檚 no reason why people shouldn鈥檛 be getting paid on a daily basis rather than waiting years,鈥� said Emery.
鈥淭here鈥檚 also no reason why people shouldn鈥檛 be able to see transparent accounting showing when their music has been streamed.鈥�
The tech is built on the Ethereum blockchain, which Emery describes as Bitcoin鈥檚 鈥榶ounger, more technologically advanced sibling鈥�, and says will be the future for the industry.
鈥淚n 10 years without a doubt this will be the way things are done,鈥� he said. 鈥淪uccess for me is not about making Choon the biggest company in the world, it鈥檚 about solving the problem.
鈥淚t鈥檚 going to take a while because the institutions are very old fashioned and self-preservation kicks in when new tech disrupts existing ones.
鈥淚 hope the music industry has learned that embracing tech works better than fighting it.
鈥淲hen Napster first appeared Metallica tried to basically ban the internet because people were sharing their songs. That didn鈥檛 work out too great.鈥�
Founders and advisors include blockchain technologists as well as established music industry professionals such as Grammy Award-winning RAC and Dubstep DJ, Datsik.