Audius - Decentralized Music Platform | Crypto Academy / S5W3 | Homework Post for @wahyunahrul.
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Hello mates, another exciting week of Crypto Academy and I am very glad to be a part. Thanks to all the professors for the wonderful work they do week after week to bring us informative and exciting lessons. This here is mu submission for @wahyunahrul assignment in this week's lecture on the Audius platform.
What do you think about the presence of the Audius platform in the music industry?
The global music industry is a very huge and has been tipped as one of the lucrative ventures in the entertainment industries. This can be alluded to how important music itself is to people and how the society and varied cultures have incorporated music to their way of life. Over the years, industry players (music writers, producers, managers, promoters, recording labels and agencies etc.) use the traditional means to push music, promote it and somehow make some revenue from the music being made. We have had times where the music will have to be burnt on a CD and distributed nationwide in shops for music lovers to go and buy a copy before they can listen to their favorite artiste. Then came the integrating of technology where streaming platforms sprung up enabling music lovers to get on the internet and stream the music of their favorite artiste. In this case, the artiste and his management will have to enter an agreement with the streaming platform (eg. Audiomack, Spotify, Boomplay etc.) to help promote the music and the revenue generated will be split among the two parties at an agreed rate.
However, blockchain technology with its numerous advantages is gradually creeping into the music space and it is exciting already. One of such projects using blockchain technology to change the conventional music industry is Audius. Audius has been gaining ground as a new way for musicians to engage their fans while also making money. To decentralize the service and avoid the costs and dangers associated with middlemen such as Audiomack, Spotify, Boomplay and the many other streaming platforms, the firm employs blockchain technology. On any device, users may stream live content and chat with other listeners, and also purchase and upload music. Highlighted below is what different the Audius platform gives it users and how this affects the entire music space.
The first feature we can talk about is how decentralized the platform is. Running on a strong blockchain network like Ethereum, Audius seeks to offer a decentralized music space where ownership or control does not exist with any authority or company.
Audius give music owners 100% ownership of their work. Because the platform runs using blockchain technology, music owners have licenses to their work and another person coming up to claim ownership of someone's work does not exist because once the music is uploaded, it is recorded hence eliminating issues of copyright encountered in the conventional music space.
Audius also allows music owners to make the most out of their work. With Audius, content creators do not have to enter agreements with middlemen to promote their work and in the end share the revenues with them. On Audius, artist receive all the income generated from their work and decide on how and what they want to do with the profits.
With this and many other benefits this platform is offering, it is no surprise great artistes like Nas, The Chainsmokers, Katy Perry among other giants have hopped on to support this project. See screenshot below.
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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.
In my opinion, I believe the Audius platform has clearly estabished that it seeks to run a fully decentralized platform where users have control of the entire system. In this sense, artists, node operators and users (fans) are those who make the decisions on the platform and the project at large.
To be part of this governance system, users will have to stake the token of the platform (AUDIO) where a token staked is tied to 1 vote. Audius however seeks to tailor governance to the most valuable players, also with incentives for the most active and this is where I find problems with. In as much as the project is decentralized to be part of the governance and decision making, to be a node operator (primary candidates for on-chain proposals), you will have to stake about some 200,000 AUDIO tokens which is quite expensive. This in my opinion leaves decision making and power in the few who are able to stake the required amount of AUDIO tokens.
To make this fair to everybody, I suggest that the required token to be staked before one can become a node operator should be reduced so that it can accommodate a large number of users hence ensuring a fairly decentralized community. However, it should be noted that, one can stake as a user for returns with a minimum of about 100 AUDIO tokens.
Explain how to do 2 types of staking on Audius complete with illustrations.
Like indicated earlier, users can stake AUDIO tokens (1) as a node operator; where the minimum token is about 200,000 AUDIO tokens and (2) as a client/user where the minimum is 100 AUDIO tokens.
Before we move to staking, we have to connect a wallet to Audius which will facilitate the transaction. Here, I will cnnect my MetaMask wallet and I will take you the steps to do that.
Connecting MetaMask wallet to Audius
Go to the Audius website using the link
On the homepage, click on Explore Dashboard
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On the next page, click on services.
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There is a Connect MetaMask option at the top right. Click that option.
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A pop-up menu appears asking you to connect to MetaMask. Click on Open MetaMask.
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A MetaMask notification appears asking you to connect the wallet to Audius. Click on Next.
Click on Connect in the next MetaMask notification.
Once you connect, your MetaMask wallet address should now display here as seen below.
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Now we can go ahead and stake.
This is where one stake to be part of the network as a node. It requires a minimum of 200,000 audio token and also very strong and advanced hardware devices to run as a node on the network.
Now our MetaMAsk wallet is connected so we can continue the process.
On the service tab, Click on Register New Service.
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You either select if you want to be a Content node operator or Discovery node and like earlier said, the minimum token requirement is 200,000 for either options. Enter the amount of tokens you want Stake obviously greater than or equal to 200,000 and click on Register Service.
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A pop-up menu appears to confirm the transaction. Click on Confirm with MetaMask.
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Once you hit, Confirm with MetaMask, the MetaMask window appears for you to complete the transaction. I didnt have enough funds to complete this.
Here, the user simply delegates his token to a node operator usually because he can't raise the required token to stake as a node operator alone.
Once you have your MetaMask wallet connected, select a preferred node operator from the list available in the Services tab.
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Click on Delegate at the top left corner
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Enter the amount of AUDIO tokens you want to delegate and click on DELEGATE. Note that the minimum amount of token to delegate varies with node operators. Here the minimum is 100,000 so I enter 500,00 for example sake.
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A pop-up menu appears to confirm the transaction. Click on Confirm with MetaMask.
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Once you hit, Confirm with MetaMask, the MetaMask window appears for you to complete the transaction. I didnt have enough funds to complete this.
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Always watch out for the gas fees associated with the transaction too.
Show the steps to create an account on Audius.
Creating an account on Audius is a simple process and it is as below.
- Visit the Audius website. On the homepage, click on Sign up for Free
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- Enter your email and click on next
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- Create your own password and confirm and click on Continue.
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- You can then link your social media accounts (Twitter or Instagram) to complete the profile or better still complete it manually. I choose to complete my profile manually without having to link it with any social media account.
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- Enter your username and handle. You can upload a profile picture too. (I will take a picture with my guitar and upload later)
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- You're required to follow at least 3 artists on the platform on the next page. Click on Continue once done.
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- On the next page, click on start listening to complete the process.
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- Viola, your account is ready!!!
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This is me enjoying music from the platform already...
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Explore and explain the features available on the Audius application or website.
I will be doing this from the desktop or website version.
The Profile page
Here users are presented with every data on their accounts and can make a lot tweaks to their account detailson Audius. You can change your profile picture, cover photo, username etc.
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From here, you can also see the number of accounts you follow and those who follow you too.
There is an option to create a personalized playlist using a number of songs available on the platform so that you can listen to at any time.
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You can also go ahead and upload a track right from here.
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There is a Feed where users can navigate through and listen to all tracks uploaded on the platform. There is a Search bar to narrow the search by users, impressive.
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There is a Trending tab, that displays trendy music on the platform for the week, month and even all time. And hey, there are rewards in the form of AUDIO tokens for top 5 tracks of the week. Isn't this exciting?
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In Explore, users are treated with carefully selected music based on their likes and activities on the platform to listen to. In here also, users can see playlist created by the people they follow, top albums, the people's favorite among others.
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The Library houses users favorite tracks and history. So you can always go back and listen to the song you enjoyed so much yesterday even if you forgot the title.
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The playlist presents you with a tall list of hot and new tracks on Audius allowing users to discover new favorite tracks and artiste.
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I must admit, the Audius platform has a very nice and interactive user interface. This got me and I like every bit of it.
Explain in detail how the mechanism of uploading music content on Audius.
Though uploading music on the Audius platform may seem simple, remember it uses blockchain technology so there are some background technicalities to get this done. Audius uses 2 different nodes for this process; the Content nodes and the Discovery nodes.
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Audius' Content Nodes are a network of many computers that store and provide audio content submitted and streamed by musicians on the platform. This is the initial node to handle music data provided by musicians; it will process, validate, and distribute the data as unique with other nodes before finally storing the music data in the Blockchain.
Once the data is stored into the blockchain, the track can then be linked to a single user which is the user who did the upload and no one can claim ownership of that music.
The Discovery nodes also play an important role by indexing and hashing the data collected from the content node into the system. The uploaded content is then published by the discovery node and this is an indication that the music was successfully uploaded.
Upload your original music to Audius and show the proof using a block explorer.
To upload music on Audius, we enter our Profile on Audius.
Click on Upload track.
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You can quickly drag and drop the music file from the location on your computer or you can browse files to locate the music file.
I choose to drag and drop the music file. It should appear here as seen below and click on continue.
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You get to specify the genre, mood and description for the song. You can upload an artwork for your track too. Once you're done with this, hit continue.
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Viola, uploading begins and your song is ready to hit the Audius platform. Click on visit track page once upload is completed to listen to your song.
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Conclusion
Audius is one of the great strides the blockchain technology has achieved. Giving content creators the opportunity to own their works and make the most out of their works in terms of monetary value is a laudable project. Riding on the back of blockchain technology is seeks to offer a fully decentralized music streaming platform way different from the conventional music platforms.
Again it has a simple-to-use and interactive user interface making it simple to navigate the entire platform. This project is great and with high prospects of matching giants like Spotify, Audiomack and the others.
Thanks to @wahyunahrul for yet again another exciting lecture. I must say I enjoyed doing the tasks for this assignment. I have a song on Audius titled; My first song by Kay Duke, you all go stream and listen!!!
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Regards
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