Blockchain musical: startup Audius raises US $ 5.5 million in series A funds

Audius, a community-owned decentralized music distribution platform, announced as Blockchain's response to Soundcloud, has announced the successful completion of a $ 5.5 million Series A financing round by launching the first exchange protocol music based on the block chain.

Done on August 8, 2018, the announcement revealed that the financing round was directed by General Catalyst and Lightspeed, with the participation of Kleiner Perkins, Pantera Capital, 122West and Ascolta Ventures.

Audius describes himself as "an alternative based on Blockchain to SoundCloud to help artists connect directly with fans and monetize their work." According to its developers, its protocol exists in perpetuity, owned and controlled by a decentralized community of artists, music lovers and developers.

The platform aims to completely change the traditional music exchange service model that some criticize for a perceived lack of control and transparency of the artist.

The founder, Ranidu Lankage, is a Sri Lankan pop artist who is best known for winning a platinum record at age 19 with "Oba Magemai", a hip hop single that is credited with the emergence of a new era in Sinhalese pop music. After the release of his successful album under Sony Records, he chose to become independent to maintain control of his work.

As part of their mission to solidify the artist's control over creative content, Ranidu and his co-founders Roneil Rumburg and Forrest Browning decided that Blockchain technology had the power to return control and creative power to artists by solving the problem of centralization and transparency.

Audius was the result of this effort, and between working to help artists with technology, Ranidu still finds time for occasional acting at international events such as Coachella and Ultra.

One of the best-known success stories generated by Audius is that of the Electronic Dance Music (EDM) 3LAU artist, who is equally famous for his music as well as his knowledge of cryptocurrencies. Speaking recently about Audius, he said:

"Artists need decentralized models to share music and an interest in the platforms to which they contribute content. Blockchain allows Audius to do this with tokens and decentralized governance based on voting, so that artists have a voice in how the platform evolves. It is a very elegant model and, as an artist, I find it immensely attractive ".

By using Audius, artists can connect directly with fans and distribute the content without the intervention of an intermediary. Like SoundCloud, they can build, nurture and relate to their base of followers on the platform, but with the key difference that their accounts are permanently kept in a block chain without the risk of being closed by a third party.

The platform also gives artists complete information about who is transmitting their content, where and when, all in the middle of a transparent payment in real time.

Audius currently has an advisory team comprised of Augur co-founder Jeremy Gardner, EDM 3LAU superstar, Pantera Capital partner Paul Veradittakit, EA Bing Gordon founder and BitTorrent chief architect Greg Hazel.

Source: CCN