What is Audius?
What is Audius?
Audius is a blockchain-based decentralized music streaming platform. It is similar in function to centralized music streaming platforms like Spotify and SoundCloud. Music streaming services have made a whopping $13 billion in revenue over the past year, and have 400 million-plus subscribers. However, there are massive concerns about the traditional music streaming platform. Mainly the fact that most artists, performers, and songwriters do not get their fair share of the revenue, is a huge problem. This is where Audius comes in.
Unlike traditional music streaming platforms which are centralized, and have a whole corporate structure behind them, Audius is owned and run by an open-source community of developers, fans, and artists. The platform aims to remove the intermediary between the artists and the fans and allow more freedom for the artist to choose how to monetize their content.
Who Created Audius?
Audius was created by Roneil Rumburg and Forrest Browning. Both of its founders are seasoned computer scientists having Ivy League degrees. They began working on Audius in early 2018. They aimed to create a platform that cut out all the middlemen in the music industry and replace them with a blockchain protocol. This would help the artists have more control of their content, and get more revenue from their music.
In the summer of 2018, Audius raised almost $5.5 million from various venture capital firms. These VC firms included General Catalyst, Lightspeed, and Pantera Capital. Audius also received $1.5 million of funding from Binance Labs. In September of 2019, Audius was completed. While its native token, AUDIO began trading in the market in October 2020. It was originally built on the POA Network, which is an Ethereum sidechain. However, later on, parts of its service were moved to the Solana blockchain.
How Audius Works?
The Audius protocol can best be described as having three layers. These include The App layer, The Node layer, and the Blockchain layer. The App layer consists of the Audius Website and the Mobile App. The great thing about the Audius app is that it doesn’t have the complex look and feel of a decentralized app. It looks like any common traditional mobile application. The primary reason for this is an open-source application programming interface (API) called Hedgehog. It is the native API of Audius, and it is free to use for all its users. Hedgehog allows the users to interact with DApps in the same way as any other website or application, without the need for any extensions or centralized key control.
The node layer of Audius shares quite a lot of similarities with the Polygon network. The node layer of Audius is a Layer 2 blockchain, that is used for improved scaling and higher throughput. While at the same time remaining compatible with the Ethereum network. Audius is currently working on moving its own permissioned layer onto the Solana network. There are two types of nodes in the protocol. These include Content nodes and Discovery nodes.
Finally, the blockchain layer involves the storage of the music that is on the platform. Once again a similarity with the Polygon network can be seen here, as, in Polygon, snapshots are taken of the state of the plasma chain, and are sent to the Ethereum network. In the event that Polygon ever goes down, then the relevant data can be recovered easily. Similarly, Audius submits snapshots of the state of the Audius protocol to Ethereum. Specifically, snapshots of the Inter-Planetary File System (IPFS) are taken, as it is where most of the music is stored. This is made possible through a custom-made extension that is known as AudSP, which allows artists to quickly store and retrieve their music from the IPFS.
What is AUDIO?
AUDIO is the native token of the Audius platform. It is an ERC-20 token that has three main functions. First and foremost it is used by the node operators, who stake their tokens in order to function a node and earn rewards as a result. These rewards are also paid out in the form of AUDIO. The second function of AUDIO is that it can be used by artists to unlock premium features of the platform. These features include the ability to display their collectible NFTs on the platform. Finally, the AUDIO token is also the governance token of the platform. The users who have staked their AUDIO can vote on different proposals on how the platform is governed and how it is to be shaped in the future.
Concerns
The main and most pressing concern about Audius is the copyright infringement it may face. At the moment the platform contains a lot of music that they are not licensed to have. This could be disastrous in the long term as artists could, in theory, sue the platform. Audius is trying to solve the copyright problem by not hosting the user-uploaded content itself, but by spreading it out among its various nodes. The platform believes that this method saves them from potential lawsuits by major labels. It remains to be seen if this method works or not. Another concern that is also relevant with the first one is that Audius doesn’t have a Content ID system in place, which means that it can’t identify potentially infringing content that has been uploaded by its users. Similarly, there is also no way for Audius to remove the infringing material from its platform, or to file a claim against it.
Where to buy AUDIO?
AUDIO can be purchased on major crypto exchanges like FTX or Crypto.com — similar to how one would buy any other cryptocurrency. You can either place a market buy or a limit buy. With a limit buy, you determine the price you’re willing to pay, and your order gets filled once the token price reaches your set limit price. If you want to get your hands on the token quickly, you can place a market order, where you agree to pay the current market price and have your order filled almost instantly. If you are interested in trading AUDIO, you can do so by visiting FTX or Crypto.com.
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