Music industry would not exist if it were not for the creative talents and efforts of musicians. However, they are not compensated in proportion to their importance. Instead, the majority of the revenues from their songs tends to go to third parties like recording labels and agencies. This is especially true on the Internet, where streaming has made music more easy to access for most users than ever before, while also increasing costs and decreasing the artists' share.
https://maestroproject.io/
This is a serious problem, and not just for reasons of fairness. Without proper incentives and support, many artists find it impossible to dedicate themselves fully to their music career, and some abandon it entirely. Listeners, meanwhile, lose out due to fixed fees: they pay the same amount no matter how much they listen. Maestro is a project that seeks to redress this by rebalancing the streaming market to better serve both artists and their fans, and to encourage the production of new music. To accomplish those objectives, Team Maestro is going to establish a comprehensive blockchain-based music platform.
What will the Maestro platform involve?
Maestro will consist of two main modules. On Ensemble, artists will be able to register for crowdfunding with a one-time Maestro Token (MAE) fee. They would then propose artistic projects for funding, using smart contracts and a special Stake of Music (SOM) system attached to their unique codename to assign ownership rights. Artists will be able to distribute starting SOMs as they see fit between everyone involved in the creation of a song and any possible investors on the platform. Once it is created, the resulting music will be put up on the other module, Symphony.
Users will purchase streaming licenses on Symphony using MAE. The account's purchase of access rights will be verified through smart contracts before they are allowed to stream a given song or album. Except for a 10% fee, the profits from every stream will be distributed on the 5th day of every month between all of a piece's owners according to the amount of SOM they have in it. Symphony will have two music charts: one based on the amount of plays a song got and another based on the votes. To upvote or downvote a song, a user would need to use Maestro Points (MSP), granted based on a complex formula including the amount of MAE held, the use of streaming and SOM gained by participating in Ensemble. The voting mechanism will be used to gather data, offer personalised recommendations and allow users with similar musical tastes to share their playlists.
Who gets what out of Maestro?
Naturally, artists would be the big winners in this system. They will be able to offer their projects for funding on their terms in a decentralised market, and receive a much bigger share of their revenues depending on the rights distribution they themselves have set. Ordinary users would also be charged considerably less than the norm and will gain the chance to act as investors and also benefit from the success of songs they backed. Maestro also encourages the participation of small and medium production companies in their ecosystem, with the smart contracts easily accounting for the desired distribution of profits within those companies. All proceeds from platform fees will be redistributed among MAE holders.
https://maestroproject.io/
What sets Maestro above other projects?
Maestro tries to solve a serious and commonly decried problem in the music industry by making full use of cutting edge technology. This includes the EOS.IO blockchain, chosen for its superior speed and high scalability. Although initially the platform's musical content will be stored on an off-blockchain Content Delivery Network (CDN), eventually there are plans to switch over to using the IPFS distributed system which would be better integrated with the blockchain and allow for quick and efficient streaming. It plays to the strengths of smart contracts by using them in various ways to construct a decentralised market with many possible participants.
Additionally, Maestro has a solid plan for its expansion, starting by focusing on K-Pop and working with artists and production companies in that genre and using its popularity to expand its geographic reach and eventually its genre scope. Also worth noting is the team's stated intent to help promote new artists on the platform, organising their crowdfunding and participating in it themselves as investors. This would both help confirm their own stakes in the platform's success and help cultivate a loyal ecosystem.
Token sale details
There will be no soft cap.
The future of music?
The music industry is long overdue for a new model that acknowledges the potential of emerging technologies while also providing better incentives to the musicians who create its main value. In the long run, an approach that is better for artists would be more sustainable. Expanding the scope of the fans' participation and tailoring the payments to their actual use also seems like a winning proposition, assuming it can be arranged in a viable way.
Maestro seems like a very idealistic project, but that puts it in tune with much of the music fan base and the cryptocurrency community, which should help it attract support. Assuming it can find enough partners to start with, the platform seems like it could be the answer to many of the music industry's problems. If so, it may become the vanguard for a new paradigm that would encompass all the aspects of the industry, from funding to listening.
Links
Website: https://maestroproject.io/
WhitePaper: https://bit.ly/2tExNVl
Telegram: https://t.me/maestroico
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rightchainlabs/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MaestroProject1
Medium: https://medium.com/@maestroproject
ANN: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4391640.0
Author: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=980049
Disclaimer
This review by Bonanza Kreep is all opinion and analysis, not investment advice.