Every time DJ Deadly Buda’s “Rock the Blockchain” Dj mix is played on Musicoin.org, fifteen separate electronic dance music tracks and their artists get paid automatically, within seconds.
This feat was accomplished at about 2:00 AM, on August 13, 2017, after Deadly Buda finalized the integration of 19 “smart contracts” on the Musicoin blockchain and attached them to his DJ mix. “Basically, it’s a game changer for any DJ-based music genre such as EDM, Disco, House or Hip-Hop,” said DJ Deadly Buda.
Graphic from the “Rock the Blockchain” mix. The mix contains 15 EDM tracks of various genres, Hard Electronic, Dubstep, Hardstyle, Hard Bass, Jungle, Drum and Bass, Hardcore Techno, Shamancore, Tekno, and Ambient, by artists Counterstrike, Satroniq & DJ Delirium, Teknoaidi, Subterranean, Cap, M27, Harhor and Deadly Buda.
Ever since the DJ mix format was popularized in the 1970’s it has mostly existed in a quasi-legal state. Because a recorded Dj mix is a continuous blend of several separate songs or “tracks”, it requires numerous permissions, paperwork and licenses to be legally compliant. By the time the paperwork is done, the audience generally considers the music in the mix old, and has moved on to the latest sound in fashion. Consequently, most DJs over the decades haven’t bothered to get the permissions, and have released the mixes “illegally” on cassettes, CDs and now, Soundcloud and Youtube. Generally, the artists in these mixes aren’t getting any money for their music and oftentimes aren’t credited as part of the mix. Djs often don’t supply playlists either to avoid scrutiny, time constraints, lack of proper labelling on dance records, or at worst, just want all the attention for themselves.
Ironically though, dance music producers make their music specifically so that it can be mixed by Djs and clamor for popular Djs to use their songs. DJ mixes, though often technically illegal, are the main channel of publicity for smaller dance music scenes or up-and-coming talent. So, for the last few decades, the music industry has generally not enforced their copyrights against DJ mixes while retaining their right to do so. Consequently, the DJs, still fearing potential incrimination, can rarely publicize their mixes on a grand scale or derive much more income than the cost of the records or Mp3s they use in the mix. The cumulative effect of this quasi-legality has been that Dj mixes are still considered “underground” even though it is the audience’s preferred manner of listening to dance music.
“The more I understood about blockchain technology, the more I realized that the legal problems with the DJ mix were about to be a thing of the past,” stated DJ Deadly Buda, “all the permissions, paperwork and payments could be done in an instant.”
Musicoin is a music-focused cryptocurrency with smart contract capability.
Blockchain technology is basically a decentralized ledger system maintained by multiple computers. The most popular blockchain in the world is Bitcoin, and it has inspired other blockchains to target specific areas of the world economy. Musicoin, as the name suggests, is geared towards music, musicians and fans. When a user plays a song on musicoin.org the artist of the song gets paid one Musicoin (worth about $0.01-0.02 USD), usually in a matter of seconds.
The Musicoin blockchain system allows an artist to upload a song and attach what is called a “smart contract” that can distribute payments to multiple parties if needed. For example, the smart contract could be programmed so that every time the song is played, the drummer, singer, guitarist and bassist in a band all split the payment.
“When I realized every song on the Musicoin system had its own payment address, I got as many people I knew that made great music to upload. Then, I asked their permission if I could use their music in my mix,” revealed Deadly Buda. After conferring with some of the artists, he decided on the following formula: 40% of the mix revenue goes to the DJ, and 60% is split evenly between the songs in the mix. “A Dj spends a lot of time sifting through a lot of bad music to find the gems he or she plays for the public, so I wanted to honor that time and money expenditure, while at the same time leaving a fair amount of room for each song to make money as well.”
DJ Deadly Buda released the World's first blockchain-enabled DJ Mix.
A new paradigm for how DJ mixes can be made and paid is now officially live thanks to DJ Deadly Buda and Musicoin, but there is still work to be done says Deadly Buda, “In the very near future, there will probably be just a checkbox an artist can use that gives anyone on the system the right to mix their music so long as they get paid via a smart contract. As soon as that happens, the system will be unstoppable and will benefit the established music industry and new artists alike.”