Audius Offers a Decentralized Music Streaming Platform, Room to Grow

Music artists around the world have struggled to get fair revenue shares from their music. Audius is a decentralized music streaming service that claims the music industry generates $43 billion in yearly revenue but artists only see 12 percent of that. These sentiments have been expressed throughout history, so it isn't too far-fetched to believe. That’s why Audius wants to use its platform and crypto to help artists gain control over their music.

While Audius has a great concept, it's still a developing platform and there are some concerns about whether it will be able to compete with common streaming platforms like Spotify and Soundcloud. Early in November, Audius and TikTok formed a partnership, so the platform is showing progress.

Launched in 2019, Audius is a decentralized protocol on Ethereum that puts the power of ownership back into music artists' hands. The main goal is to have a community-owned music platform where the artists have control over the music they put out.

The three main components of the platform are the artists, fans, and service providers. The artists publish songs and albums for free on the platform. The music can be played in high-quality audio and artists can track the metrics of how their music is doing on the platform. Fans can stream the music, create playlists, subscribe and follow the artists, and share the content with others. The service providers serve as nodes, which helps the platform function.

There are two types of nodes on the network—content nodes and discovery nodes. Content nodes store and organize tracks, mixes, and albums that are uploaded to the platform. Discovery nodes focus more on data like streaming statistics, profile data, playlists, and followers. The two nodes work together to make sure that the music is uploaded efficiently. The content uploaded on the platform is controlled by third-party companies and node operators, which leaves the control out of Audius’ hands.

The Audio coin is the governance coin of Audius. Holders of the token can gain access to exclusive features and become a node by staking their holdings. From a governance standpoint, those who hold Audio will be a part of meetings that help regulate the platform's future plans.

Audius explains that the more coins you hold, the stronger the weight of your vote will be. Those who stake the coin get to operate as a node and help verify content that gets uploaded for publishing on the platform. Artists and listeners can unlock premium features when holding Audio coins, including giveaways, exclusive content, and private contests.

Artists are paid in Audio. Reportedly, 90 percent of the platform's revenues go towards music artists and the other 10 percent goes towards node operators. Dubbed "Audius Rewards," the streaming service provides weekly rewards to artists who have the top trending music on the platform.

Audius is a great concept, but the platform is still nowhere near the level of Spotify, Tidal, or even Soundcloud. It's hard to decipher if artists currently make any substantial revenue from publishing their music on the decentralized platform.

According to Wallet Investor, the Audio coin will reach $9.91 by the end of 2022 with the token’s current price being around $2.20. Many people have concerns about whether Audius’ business model will be sustainable, especially when it comes to the Audio coin. On the platform’s website, it shows that the community has the largest holdings of the coin, but not by a significant margin.

Private investors are right behind the community in holdings, as well as the company’s internal staff. This begs the question of whether private investors and employees essentially can or already do control most of the governance when it comes to voting on certain topics. Nonetheless, Audius is a unique platform and could just be the start of decentralized streaming services.