Web3, Hip-hop Samples, and Paying Artists

Can #web3 deliver a different future for musicians, where we don’t have to wait for lawyers to determine 30 years later that we are allowed to listen to an album?*

I indulged in some nostalgia last weekend. Spotify made all of De La Soul’s albums available for streaming, and so I had “3 Feet High and Rising” on repeat, as it was for so many days back when originally it came out in 1989.

You can find several informative pieces in major publications to see the details behind the delay, but it comes to this: their work is filled with brilliantly used samples of other artists’ work, and clearing all that work to determine who gets paid and where the money comes from is a legal cluster. The outcome is that De La Soul couldn’t receive streaming royalties for years, and fans couldn’t access their music on streaming platforms.

There are good reasons for the existing protections in place, but can we work on updating the mechanisms?

The idealist in me hopes we can apply digital ledger technology (blockchain/web3) and smart contracts to keep artists both inspired and rewarded by collaboration. As generative art and music combine with AI - what can we hope to see?

What if artists could specify their expectations for use in advance? “Here’s my song and creators can use the vocal sample, but don’t touch the guitars. If you use my vocal sample, here’s what I expect in return - 5% of your revenue totals.”

A light amount of research shows promise, with a few new businesses aiming at making it easier to create, share and profit together from the success of great art (Blockpool, eMusic, Mycelia, Open Music Initiative, MediaChain, Digimarc).

I’m curious - who else is out there working on removing friction for the benefit of artists?

*PS: I’m being deliberately provocative my opening statement, so let me say to my lawyer friends: I love you all and will continue to defend you and come to you for your wisdom. I don’t want smart contracts to make you all go away. I do want you to bring your brilliant minds to the party in web3.