We DESERVE Open Source Music
Copyright law has constrained the music industry. Continuing to focus on rights management and their oversight is a costly vestige of outdated thinking that doesn’t align with the open and collaborative nature of the internet. It’s time to let go of the old model and build a new one.
Music is begging to be open sourced. Removing the legal hurdles to sampling, remix, reuse of work will unleash creativity by removing the stigma against “borrowing”. The gaming industry gets it and has used a more open source ethos to transform consumers to participants to the benefit of the industry. As we enter the phase of the internet where creators are at the center, why not encourage more creative participation around music as well.
To do that, we’ll have to get past the idea that music is untouchable. A cultural reset is required. Capitalizing on the opportunity will take admitting that no creative idea is 100% original, but exists along a continuum that builds on a myriad of references, influences, and experiences of the creator.
The music industry may never be willing to accept this or cede control over the protections that power their business. Could this be where Web3 steps up?
If we’re here to use blockchain to build new infrastructure to facilitate massive global collaboration, music feels like the perfect use case.
It would be cool to see open source become hallmark the next phase of internet culture. Blockchain technology allows a rich web of content to create experiences that can be captured around an original work. Imagine a world where all remixes, comments, fan art, and user-generated content are linked to show the true cultural value of a song. This is the open, inclusive, bottoms up web that we want to see.
The crowd matters and can now contribute to the art more publicly.
Our aim is to increase the pace of innovation and use music to showcase what’s possible by creating a user generated ecosystem for music to forge a new culture of openness and sharing. We support anyone building towards the same future and invite partners on the same mission to join us.