They were not lying when they said that the blockchain was infiltrating every layer of society and every corner of our world as we know it. The latest news on the blockchain shows that the blockchain has come up with an answer to Soundcloud by unveiling Audius. Audius is a decentralized community owned platform for music sharing. An announcement about the successful completion of 5.5 million series A funding of the world’s first ever music sharing platform based on the blockchain. The August 8 announcement revealed that the round of funding was headed by firms Lightspeed and general catalyst. Also in play were firms like Pantera capital, 122 West, Kleiner Perkins, and Ascolta ventures.
This project seeks to help music artists have more control of the music they share and how they share it using the blockchain. Audius is described as Soundcloud’s blockchain based alternative that will help artists get that direct connection to their fans while also monetizing their work. Audius developers have revealed that the Audius protocol exists in perpetuity and is owned and controlled by a community of developers, artists, and music lovers.
While the exact release date for this blockchain based service is not yet known, developers do promise that this project will do artists a lot of work. Audius will challenge traditional music sharing mediums that have been perceived to offer artists little transparency and control over their own work. This project is the brainchild of Sri Lankan pop artist, Ranidu Lankage, well known for going platinum at age of 19 with the single “Oba Magemai” credited as a single that paved the way for new age Sinhalese pop music. He is also known for going independent after a stint with popular record label Sony Records with whom he recorded his debut album.
As part of his quest to gain creative and content freedom, Ranidu and fellow cofounders of Audius, Forrest Browning, and Roneil Rumburg decided to turn to the blockchain in order to solve their problem. After they came up with the Audius concept, they began working with tech experts to make the concept a reality. Audius has gained admirers such as 3LAU, an electronic dance music artist who is also known for his knowledge of cryptocurrency. The big differentiating factor between Audius and Soundcloud is that with Audius, artists can still engage with their fans without the possibility of a third party shutdown as with Soundcloud.
Audius boasts of advisers such as Augur cofounder Jeremy Gardner, EDM star 3LAU, Bit torrent’s chief architect Greg hazel, EA founder Bing Gordon, and Pantera capital’s Paul Veradittakit
