Feb 20, 2016
Unfair payment for streamed music has been an on-going debate in the music industry. But Imogen Heap may just have a solution. The British indie-rock singer is currently creating a platform that could give music creators the long lost rights to each of their songs.
At Design Indaba, an architecture and design conference in Cape Town, South Africa, Heap introduced “Mycelia,” a free platform that will serve as a faster, more direct payment method for artists. Speaking to Quartz, “When someone buys a piece of music or plays a piece of music, ultimately in the future there will be no need for a middle, centralized service.”
But that’s not all Mycelia will do: Through blockchain technology, artists will also be able to track and control the song’s credits, terms of usage, when and where a song is played, and any form of transaction or circulation amongst listeners.
Heap also explained, "There’s a whole world behind each song… There’s a lot of data there and a lot of wasted data that’s not being harnessed to give back to the artist.” When asked about Mycelia going head to head with major streaming platforms such as Spotify and Tidal, Heap told reporters that it's not her intention to rival against other sites. Rather, “it’s about trying to take away the power from top down and give power, or at least a steering, to the artist to help shape their own future.”
Although Mycelia has yet to launch, fans can look at towards the Heap's latest single “Tiny Human” as a precursor for what to except. Users can purchase the song itself, as well as the track’s stems: keys, bass, strings, vocals, etc.
Image: PopMatters