The Musician Cryptocurrency Conundrum
Thanks to my time at Berklee College of Music, I’m lucky to know a great number of talented and successful musicians. Yet, few of them use cryptocurrency.
this post is NOT affiliated with berklee in any way
In fact, few musicians are even aware of cryptocurrency. Sure, they've heard of Bitcoin - but that’s the full extent of it. They aren’t on Steem, they don’t even know what Ethereum is. It baffles me, considering how important this technology is for artists.
After all, it facilitates a much larger and more prosperous group of working-class artists in the world.
Whereas before, you had to join a cover band or become a teacher to make a “middle class” music income, cryptocurrency and blockchain technology are forging a new path for the musician who just wants to create music. You can earn a living off of original music, thanks to the removal of middlemen (youtube, spotify, labels, whatever) who used to eat the profits.
What's Going On?
Why aren’t musicians picking up on this exciting new technology? A few thoughts:
-Musicians aren’t financially minded. They focus so hard on creative pursuits, on the raw experience of life itself, that they don’t tend to have an aptitude for numbers and long-term financial planning.
-Musicians are trying to focus 24/7 on music. They’re afraid that they have to “make it” by age 30, and to do that they have to practice 10,000 hours, and therefore any hours spent learning and understanding new technology are seen as a waste of time.
Musicians read this book and lose their fuckin minds. p.s. this book has no science in it
-Musicians fear making money. This is weird, but in the punk/underground scenes, you basically aren’t supposed to want money. Which is absurd.
-The catch-22: Few musicians are engaged in crypto now, which means people aren’t inclined to take the “risk” of trying it.
What Will Happen in the Future
Overall, I am optimistic. The tide will slowly turn towards more musicians on the blockchain, thanks to the sheer value that blockchain and cryptocurrency offer for them. When musicians see more successful colleagues talking about Ethereum, Steem, LBRY, and the like, it’ll drive more interest.
In the short term, the best thing we can do is succeed. Create great art and monetize it via the blockchain. I know any band I join will have to learn to use blockchain, because I can’t imagine working hard and NOT utilizing this incredible new opportunity.
What do you think, are there are other angles to this question that I’m missing?
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Great topic. Although the same can be said for a lot of industries, I can see how musicians in particular could be benefiting from cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.
Perhaps with time, a greater awareness will create that shift for musicians and other artists.
You're right that it applies to many industries - in fact, my focus on music might be simply a result that I'm a musician haha.
p.s. my votes are worth $1.60 now apparently thanks to HF19 o_o. you just got the first one :-D
Well thank you! I'm a bit of a newbie to the Steemit platform...so I've still not wrapped my head around today's hard fork and how it affects the system, us, etc. But I'll gladly accept your $1.60-upvote. :)
You are absolutely correct about musicians, crypto and the tech barrier.
I've been a working musician since 1965, they called me old school 25 years ago. lol
From my perspective I never really thought about making it by 30.
I have always 'played for the sake of the art'.
Like John Lee Hooker said"I got the boogie in me an it's got to come out"
Another angle is the blockchain and its many benefits. Being an innovator and early adopter I look at lots of many and varied things. When I looked at the blockchain I saw automatic proof of work, composition and instant timestamped copyright.
More importantly for me is the perpetuity of the blockchain, meaning my progeny will be able to see what I was about long after I'm gone.
Hey, bro I am 70 years and have 2 great-grandkids. I am leaving my legacy right now.
That's awesome to hear @bilbop! Seems like so many of my colleagues who are in their 20's view the age "30" as some kind of END OF THE WORLD. It's awesome to have an experienced veteran of the industry like yourself around to remind us what it's really about.
"When I looked at the blockchain I saw automatic proof of work, composition and instant timestamped copyright." -- hopefully this stuff will get more people involved. songwriters won't need to mail their songs to themselves anymore :-)
Thanks for your support, bro. Yeah when I was in my 20s' it was never trust anyone over 30. They're sell outs to the 'man'.
30 may now be the perceived 'rockstar' barrier.
The future is now and for me I'm going for it until there is no more boogie left.
Perhaps steemit may provide a pension, time will tell.
Dude, you're so awesome ! Rock on brother man.
I actually never really considered the point about "instant time stamp." Good call ~
Thank you for your support, bro.
Awesome....takes one to know one, man. lol
As we learn more about the blockchain, and it's intracacies;
creative types will gain many advantages.
When robotics takes over eveything, the imaginative and productive will rule!
I am a musician myself and crypto advocate. But I think we still have along way to go when it comes to usability and adoption. The potential is there for sure. But as far as interfaces there are not any good ones not that iv'e seen at the moment but then again i havent been realy looking and i dont think most musicians will be checking for it untill it has the visibility of soundcloud or bandcamp. but it is a catch 22. As i can see that intergrated into a platform like this one (which ive seen you are trying to do :) ) it could work very well because as a culture we have come to a consensis that music is free. Even myself as a musician who appriceates art am likley to (trap out the bandwith! to quote dj akademics) and download a new album but support the artist by goin to one of there shows or buying a tshirt. However If you dont have to pay to vote in a sytem like steemit i could see it working well. However if it was just another music service similar to bandcamp, cdaby, soundcloud, ect ect it would offer no real advantage and be even less atractive to artist looking for exposure as blockchain is not mainstreem yet. It has potential though. But one issue i have as an artist that needs to be overcome (that i may post about) is that you cant edit or delete. And thats a kind of hard thing if your a perfectionist, well it may help you get over it! lol Been enjoying you posts man. Im new here and have been relating to most things you post.
Well the good thing is you can edit and delete on the frontend - for example I could edit this reply if I wanted to. BUT, on the blockchain you're right, the old posts will always be hidden in the background.
You're totally spot on that we need better tech to entice more people. I'm optimistic it'll happen, just based on how the Internet and computers in general took so long (decades) to catch on in the mainstream.
Thanks for reading! Glad to hear that you're digging it.
Was just thinking the other day about playing a gig and getting paid in Crypto :) deffinetly looking fwd to exploring the blockchain offerings.
Crypto takes an element of technical savvy - even today.
Musical artists as a general sub-culture and the tech savvy don't typically overlap. It would take some active evangelizing of the blockchain, Ujo and other music-focused crypto services.
Then it would need to spread by word of mouth and general usefulness. Patreon is a good example of this type of growth.
Yea it's been pretty hard for me to introduce musicians to this platform due to the technical barrier. I want to show them it isn't too hard, then I realize how many different concepts need to be explained - what is bitcoin, what is blockchain, what is an altcoin, what is steem, how to secure your account, how to cash out in USD, DAMN its a lot if you're starting from a totally blank slate.
my first week on this has consumed me, so much to learn, still more too.
haven't made much music this week as a result.
it will be worth all the effort though
ahh don't let it take you away from music too much! its all about facilitating the greatest creativity and best music possible, at least in my mind :-)
im still working out how I'm gonna film and make sure i can share it all efficiently,
getting closer everyday.
So, the trick would be to built an abstraction layer over top for them. Perhaps use guitar picks or instruments instead of keys or to denote value. Can't lose them. Have them upload their content...
Probably a startup in there somewhere...
You hit the nail on the head about musicians. They are so focused on their work that they never explore out of it, much less the tech realm. I believe Steemit is a great platform for musicians as they can share their content to an even greater audience. Hopefully this change comes sooner than later!
ya, if we keep working hard to spread the word then eventually musicians will figure it out. Money and creative fulfillment are both very powerful motivators.
Yes, indeed, this is what I was getting at in another comment I made on your channel...
There's definitely something to what you're saying here. I have invited several creative friends to steemit. They even went as far as signing up and then never posted/just posted once. Crypto is gona be huge for content creators!
Right?! Your experience is similar to mine. I had a friend who I was convinced would take it seriously - we talked about it like ten times. Then I sponsor his account via anonsteem and watch as he comments for a day.. then never returns. oi vei
I feel it's outta our hands at this point. It believe you really do have to discover a way to incorporate steemit into your life.
For me it, was the ability to post my music demos, get feedback from total strangers and also make a little extra $ instead of just cataloguing them on my itunes and forgetting about them. If one of my groups didn't use a composition, it just stayed there doing nothing.
First of all, ey! Didn't know you went to Berklee. I was just across the Charles at the GSD.
Overall great points. Musicians face very similar challenges as designers, architects, and artists. Crypto until now has been almost exclusively for those who already had a strong financial foundation. Now these emerging tools can hopefully help creatives establish that foundation.
Yo! Very interesting to hear you compare musicians to designers/architects, those are two angles I never thought of.
I'm feeling dumb because I don't know what "GSD" stands for, can you illuminate me?
Ah it's the design school at Harvard =)
I've been ranting like a madman to any local musician in Phoenix that will listen to me. Steemit has kind of "recharged" my creative output.
thats the beauty of it - its not just profitable, it really encourages creativity and making stuff. good luck w/ getting more pheonix musicians up on here
Great article! It is indeed absolutely ridiculous that is's frowned up on to want to make money with your music. I think you can make great music and can get a nice income of it too without having to compromise much, you just need to find the right market for the stuff you like to make. And I think Steemit will be a great way to earn something extra with my music, plus I really love this platform the interactions with people on here are great.
Hi ! I'm currently a student a Berklee College of Music :). You are right. Its hard to get my friends to use cryptocurrencies. I guess its just a matter of time.
If you're a musician and are into crypto, I recommend sonecu
The only comments I see about Musicoin seem pretty spammy, to be honest. I'm happy to check it out if you can offer some legitimate / non-hyped up info