Unpacking Web3 and Music Rights: A Conversation with SoundExchange
At first glance, solving music rights seems to be Web3’s killer use case.
Issues around financial transparency, payment efficiency, and data management have long plagued the music business. This has inspired many creators and entrepreneurs to use blockchain technology to build alternative systems for music rights, in a way that prioritizes open, distributed, verifiable data and royalty flows from the ground up. It’s no coincidence that nearly every major rights holder in the music business is ironing out an official Web3 strategy in 2023, seeing an opportunity for implementing blockchain solutions at the institutional level.
That said, the Web3 music rights landscape still faces a myriad of challenges — from the inability of smart contracts to account for the complexities of global recording contracts, to the political battle of rallying industry-wide consensus around data-sharing, to the constant moving target of financial regulation around royalty-backed Web3 products. The big question remains: Is there a future where Web3 and traditional music copyright frameworks can coexist?
To explore this topic further, we’re excited to host a free webinar on Web3 and music rights with SoundExchange, as a follow-up to our Wavelengths Summit.
Join Marc Rucker (Associate Director, Industry Relations at SoundExchange), Tommy Korpinen (Chief Business Development Officer, SoundExchange), and Cherie Hu (Founder, Water & Music) for a discussion about the key opportunities, challenges, and debates that arise in the world of Web3 and music IP, plus solutions SoundExchange is exploring to help Web3 founders and developers better navigate the complex music rights landscape.
Throughout our conversation, we’ll cite findings from Water & Music’s Web3 research and community discussions that have taken place in our Discord server.
SoundExchange is a music tech organization on a mission to power the future of music. Through proprietary solutions that turn data into accurate revenue, SoundExchange collects and distributes digital performance royalties on behalf of 650,000 creators and growing. To date, SoundExchange has paid more than $10 billion in distributions to creators.
Full disclosure: This conversation is a follow-up to Water & Music's inaugural Wavelengths Summit on music and tech, which took place in Brooklyn on May 6, 2023. SoundExchange was one of the flagship sponsors for our Summit. Thanks so much to SoundExchange and our other partners for making our first summit such a great success!
ABOUT WATER & MUSIC
Water & Music is a research and intelligence network for the new music business. Our mission is to make the music industry more innovative, cooperative, and transparent, through a social approach to research, education, and knowledge exchange.
You can learn more about our research and our unique industry perspective on our website.
