I recently saw a post about Audius (https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/08/audius/) and it got me thinking. I like the idea but I think this video explains the current landscape of the music industry well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQT6UfvyGP8.
In 2017, music artists received only 12% of the $43 billion generated in music industry revenue in the United States… and the top 10% of most streamed tracks account for 99% of all streams. The business model barely works for the most famous artists, and often fails the independent artists without record label capital.
A technology solution such as blockchain may help in providing a platform for speeding up the royalties process, but as suggested in the Pitchfork video, there is a cultural change needed to support the lesser known independent artists Audius is aiming to help. A shift to purchasing and streaming this music and merchandise through platforms such as Bandcamp, and buying tickets to see them live, is the only we can start to turn the tables to support these artists.