Audius - Decentralized Music Platform | Crypto Academy / S5W3 | Homework Post for @wahyunahrul
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1). What do you think about the presence of the Audius platform in the music industry?
Its a well know fact that the music industry has been generating lots of revenue from time immemorial. It has seen an upgrade with lots of creative individuals, young and old alike, looking to make their impact on the industry. As there have been a boost in the number of artists, so have there been a boost in the number of producers and recorf labels etc. This may sound good but it doesn't sound good but its not telling the whole story.
These record labels are more of a centralized system. The artists has to go through them in order for their work to get to the public and for many other functions like copyright and revenue generation. We also have to factor in the time wasted in the process. Concerning the revenue generated, the artists only get a minute amount of that while the *middle-men* gets the most of it.
Enter Audios. A decentralized platform that seeks to take out the middle man and connect the artists directly to the consumers. The artists gains full control of his product and can maximize his earnings from them as he doesn't need to pay any third party. When ever he uploads his songs to the network, he earns directly whenever anyone listens to his songs. Copyright of the songs has been made easier and faster and with more protection as its on the Blockchain where information cannot be tampered with.
So in essence, I think Audius in the music industry is a big win, for the artists and the listeners alike. Listeners will not have to pay a subscription fee in order to listen to their favorite songs/artists.
2) With the governance system used by Audius, do you think that system has made Audius a fair and fully decentralized platform? If not, please provide your personal suggestions for the system that Audius uses to make it more fair and decentralized.
Audius is a music platform based on blockchain technology. For the fact that its on the Blockchain shows that it aims for decentralization, which it has achieved on so many levels. There are no central governing bodies, no middle-men, artists are now connected directly to the listeners and so on. But the method of the Audius has brought a question mark on its decentralization.
It can be likened to the PoS mechanism. The more you stake, the more you earn and have influence on the platform. I think this is not entirely fair as it'll only favour those who have more tokens in their wallet. It can be frustrating at times as not everyone has the same financial muscle to rack up lots of tokens if they're not getting enough fans to listen to their songs.
3). Explain how to do 2 types of staking on Audius complete with illustrations. (Image Required)
Staking in Audius is a process where by node operators deposit some tokens to the platform for the efficient running and security of the platform. These staked tokens $audio are a form of collateral from the node operators to ensure that they can be trusted and perform tasks efficiently and in the case of malicious acts, they can be punished accordingly.
There's a minimum of 200,000 tokens to be staked by node operators, this so as to ensure that they are sufficiently grounded in the system and then a maximum stakeable token which goes on to prevent centralization of the platform.
There are two methods of staking on Audius
- Become a node operator.
- Join an existing node and share the rewards gained.
On becoming a node operator; this method is quite expensive and many may regard is as not worth the hassle as they may not have enough financial muscle to flex. Certain requirements has to be met, which includes the CPU processing power, the minimum stakeable tokens( 200000 $Audio per node). One may choose to operate a content node or a discovery node or both at the same time.
Joining an existing node is quite simple when compared to the other type. It invloves delegating some $audio tokens to an already existing node/nodes and then get a percentage of the rewards the node earns, according to your delegated tokens. A user doesn't have to worry about meeting the minimum requirements, like the minimum tokens stakeable and the minimum cpu requirements. $Audio holders can delegate a minimum of 100 tokens to a node by simply connecting thier metamask wallet to the platform.
4). Show the steps to create an account on Audius. (Screenshot Required)
Creating an account on Audius is as easy as ABC. For this question, i will show the process of creating an account using the Mobile application.
- Firstly, you need to download the app from the google play store or Apple play store amd fully install the app.
- Choose the sign up option, you'll need to enter your email,
- Next up is to create a password. A strong one that can't be easily deciphered by another party. There are certain criteria to be met before your password is considered strong. Like, it must contain numbers, should be at least 8 characters long and then you still have to confirm the password in the second box.
- Profile page. You'll have to fill in your profile and that's the next page that'll come up with some options too. You may choose to automatically fill up you profile by linking it to some social media giants like Instagram or Twitter. Or you could simply choose to fill that up manually at your convenience.
- On the next step, you'll need to upload a profile picture and choose a display name and a handle name, more like your username with the "@" symbol.
- Following people. You have to follow at least 3 other artists for the completion of your account creation. You may choose any artists of your choice from any genre and you could follow as many as you want.
- "Your account is almost ready to rock".... The message seen in the next page indicating that you're almost ready to use the platform.
- After a little moment, your account will be created and the first page seen will be your feed.
5). Explore and explain the features available on the Audius application or website. (Screenshot Required)
There are so many exciting features on the Audius platform and I'll be exploring a few of them here.
Feed
This is the first welcome page when you open the app. Here you get to see a list of songs from different artist and genres. You can choose to view a particular artist ir genre by filtering then using the search button or the **original post** or the **reposts** by users.
Profile
This is all about you. You information stored on the platform as well as some of you actions performed on the platform which includes your uploads, reposts etc. You can also upload audio files from here.
Trending
This feature shows you the top tracks according to the number of times its been played on the platform. You can also view the trending audios for a time frame from this section, like that of a week, a month and all time.
Now Playing
This is the music player itself. The page that comes up after you've chosen a particular track to listen to. There's the play and pause button, and your can skip to the next/previous track and also shuffle the playlist. You can repost and also add the track to your favorites.
6). Explain in detail how the mechanism of uploading music content on Audius.
One might be inquisitive as to how the upload process works, well here it is. Here I'll show you how your audio file undergoes processing by the two nodes; content node and the discovery node.
The content node perfoms its action first. Once a file is uploaded it's then processed by the content node which transcodes the data and provides a reference code for the data which helps in identity of the data. This data is then duplicated and sent to two other content nodes on the network, this is to show/proof that the data exist on all the network of the platform, a way of proving Decentralization since more than one node has access to the data. The information of the user is then linked to the file so as to prove ownership of the file (metadata).
Enter Discovery node. This collects the metadata and indexes it, giving it a unique hash in the process. The discovery node makes the file available for all users to use, completing the upload of the file. The artist is notified when the process os completed.
7). Upload your original music to Audius and show the proof using a block explorer. (Screenshot Required)
As an artist/creator, you'll need an audience and to get one you have to make the audio available for them. In this section, I'll be taking us on the method of uploading an audio file on Audius. I'll be making use of the desktop site.
- Firstly, you'll need to sign in.
- Locate the upload track icon and click on it
- then you'll need to choose a method of uploading, either by dragging and dropping the file in the specified section or simply choose from your phone's Library.
- After selecting the file to upload, you need to provide some necessary information about this file, information which includes the name of the file, genre, mood, tags, description etc. You can also place a copyright on the file. To do this simply click on the show advanced button
- After this section, the file will now be uploaded, having gone through the process of the different nodes(content and discovery nodes).
- You can see your uploaded audio file in your profile page.
Conclusion
Audius is a platform for the future, its one that has shown great potential and still has a lot in store for the artists and fans alike. The $Audio token is a good motivator for fans to use the platform. Blockchain technology is still in its early days and very exciting, a Blockchain based music platform is one that will capture the hearts of many. As impressive as Audius looks, theres still room for improvement and innovation. I'll like to see how this come about in the near future.
Thank you
Cc
@wahyunahrul
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