deadmau5 and Richie Hawtin join MODA DAO on a mission to fix music
The future is here: a ‘decentralized publishing label’ with deadmau5 and Richie Hawtin is changing everything about music distribution.
It’s widely known that the rails the music industry is built on are largely archaic vestiges of a predatory business model. A top down, rent-seeking model that leaves musicians at a grim disadvantage when it comes to the economics of their art and the control they have over the trajectory of their own careers. One of the myriad issues in the industry is distribution and in turn, new artist discovery and label negotiations. If you aren’t already popular, you need a label to make that happen for you. The desperation leads to bad deals and music that is shelved. We do our best at Dancing Astronaut to share emerging talent beyond the major label plugs, but on a mass scale if you aren’t with a major, you’re going to have a hard time getting the plays you need to book the shows that pay. Because god knows you aren’t going to eat off the streaming revenue.
Despite the emergence of various streaming platforms, up-and-coming artists are still beholden to the gatekeepers and algorithms of the industry-led streaming services and the playlists they manipulate. An emerging artist has their growth handicapped from the start by a winner-take-all environment where the scene’s biggest stars capture most of the benefits of the streaming boom — financial and otherwise.
Thanks to MODA DAO, this Paleolithic problem is primed for radical change and an eventual extinction. As NFTs and decentralization begin to undermine the foundational shortcomings of the music industry, there is little doubt that this new paradigm will become the norm. Pandora’s box has been opened and no matter what the big three try to do the writing is on the wall.
NFTs, with their innate programmability, open up endless opportunities by reintroducing scarcity and uniqueness back to music. A mass decentralization of music will fundamentally shift in the way the industry is organized – starting with the most important stakeholders – the artists.
The tech isn’t just an ephemeral idea, it’s being built as we speak and is supported by some of the most-forwarding thinking artists in the space – deadmau5, blond:ish, Richie Hawtin, Chris Lake, and more. Throw in a collection of like-minded label owners, agents, managers, and other music natives and you’ve got a well-established movement to democratize the industry and enable musicians to reap the rightful benefits of their work.
A sea change is coming.
Want to learn more about MODA DAO and its plans for the future?
Check out The Music3 Industry Paper. And get into the weeds on how it all works on MODA DAO’s Medium page.
Featured image: Leah Sems
Categories: Music