Blockchain technology can provide solutions to complex piracy threats of the future if the music industry embraces it, an expert has said.
Addressing the inaugural PRS for Music Explores Blockchain event, computing guru Alan Graham said the disruptive technology will help overcome the inevitable threat of new, decentralised streaming services that can evade licensing and anti-piracy legislature.
Graham predicted that such a service will appear within the next two to five years, and it will be built on its own blockchain, torrents and peer-to-peer innovations.
He said: ‘Someone today who’s completely unknown to us is building the next Napster and we’ll see it in the next two to five years.
‘It’s not going to be licensed because there’s no owner, there’s no founder, you don’t know who made it – it will just be out there and you can’t take it down. It won’t pay any royalties, apps will have access to it and it’ll be immune by safe harbour and it’s inevitable it’s going to happen.’
However, Graham said the music industry can work to overcome the threat, ‘disrupting the disrupter’ by providing something better than free.
‘We have an opportunity to take blockchain technology, and other technologies like it, and create an alternative view,’ he continued.
‘A better value than true free – a free that you’ve never seen before. To do that we have to disrupt the disrupter, and to disrupt the disrupter we have to get to work. We have to start doing this.’
He pointed to the need for a ‘minimal viable dataset’ across the industry, which could help establish the building blocks of a music business blockchain, adding that the technology is only as good as the data it serves.
Graham is co-founder of OCL, an initiative which has developed a set of centralised and decentralised solutions for managing connections between technology platforms, rightsholders and the public.
Blockchain, although still in its infancy, could allow data to be encrypted into digital music files, publicly associating them with the correct rightsholders in real time.
It has been embraced by digital experts who believe it could solve many issues across the online music food chain.
The PRS for Music Explores BlockChain event gathered a number of leading experts from the music and technology worlds to discuss its potential over two panels.
The society said it is keen to encourage constructive debate around how the new technology can be used to assist in its goal of ‘getting fair and full value for the exploitation of our member’s repertoire’.
Read more M coverage from the event here:
Imogen Heap: blockchain can help music industry ‘join the dots’
Music rights expert calls for blockchain caution
Blockchain can fuel music industry growth, says artist manager
Addressing the inaugural PRS for Music Explores Blockchain event, computing guru Alan Graham said the disruptive technology will help overcome the inevitable threat of new, decentralised streaming services that can evade licensing and anti-piracy legislature.
Graham predicted that such a service will appear within the next two to five years, and it will be built on its own blockchain, torrents and peer-to-peer innovations.
He said: ‘Someone today who’s completely unknown to us is building the next Napster and we’ll see it in the next two to five years.
‘It’s not going to be licensed because there’s no owner, there’s no founder, you don’t know who made it – it will just be out there and you can’t take it down. It won’t pay any royalties, apps will have access to it and it’ll be immune by safe harbour and it’s inevitable it’s going to happen.’
However, Graham said the music industry can work to overcome the threat, ‘disrupting the disrupter’ by providing something better than free.
‘We have an opportunity to take blockchain technology, and other technologies like it, and create an alternative view,’ he continued.
‘A better value than true free – a free that you’ve never seen before. To do that we have to disrupt the disrupter, and to disrupt the disrupter we have to get to work. We have to start doing this.’
He pointed to the need for a ‘minimal viable dataset’ across the industry, which could help establish the building blocks of a music business blockchain, adding that the technology is only as good as the data it serves.
Graham is co-founder of OCL, an initiative which has developed a set of centralised and decentralised solutions for managing connections between technology platforms, rightsholders and the public.
Blockchain, although still in its infancy, could allow data to be encrypted into digital music files, publicly associating them with the correct rightsholders in real time.
It has been embraced by digital experts who believe it could solve many issues across the online music food chain.
The PRS for Music Explores BlockChain event gathered a number of leading experts from the music and technology worlds to discuss its potential over two panels.
The society said it is keen to encourage constructive debate around how the new technology can be used to assist in its goal of ‘getting fair and full value for the exploitation of our member’s repertoire’.
Read more M coverage from the event here:
Imogen Heap: blockchain can help music industry ‘join the dots’
Music rights expert calls for blockchain caution
Blockchain can fuel music industry growth, says artist manager
