What Is Audius and the AUDIO Token?

The majority of the world’s populace are undeniably lovers of music, as such the global music industry generates nothing less than billions every year. Considering the pleasures and relief brought to the mind of many by virtue of music and the significance of the revenue generated annually, there have been concerns that artists are not being fairly compensated for their work. Howey, Audius (AUDIO) believes that a crypto integration with the music industry could remediate this loophole. Thus, it has sought to create a decentralized music sharing and streaming protocol that is powered by the blockchain network, aiming to empower artists with the ability to manage how their music is monetized while being able to connect directly with fans.

Audius: A New Spotify?

With the music streaming industry being super competitive with an estimation of about 445 million music streaming subscribers from around the globe, Audius seems to carry the potential to threaten the industry. Hence, it leaves us with the quest as to whether it is a rival to Spotify or has apparently emerged as a new Spotify.

Basically, Audius is a community-driven decentralized protocol that focuses on music streaming services. Audius is deploying possible infrastructures to decentralize and democratize the music industry by offering artists proper control and monetizing power over their music. As such, the blockchain-powered music platform is literally making efforts to become the next Spotify or SoundCloud of the blockchain sort.

How Does Audius Work?

As said earlier, Audius is a decentralized music streaming blockchain-powered platform which seeks to return due money and power back to artists. Nonetheless, it is important to understand that Audius is able to decentralize the music industry by connecting these music artists directly to their listeners, thereby cutting out record labels and middlemen which would have cost the artists more. It allows music creators to upload and monetize their content without the need to be signed to a label or any intermediary. Moreso, Audius gives music creators options to choose how they want their content to be monetized. They can choose to offer content and streams for free, having a one-time payment to unlock all content or sell their songs as non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

With Audius, artists are able to maximize their income as it does not share from their revenue. In particular, 90% of sales revenue is allocated to the artists, while the other 10% falls back to node operators that support the network. However, Audius is able to stay sustainable via funding rounds while incentivizing employees and early investors with the AUDIO token. Apparently, it is non-dependent on the revenue of the artists.

Technically, Audius is secured and supported by two types of decentralized nodes which includes content nodes and discovery nodes. The content nodes serve as a host to the musical contents while the discovery nodes index the same content.

The Audius Network is powered by its native token, AUDIO, an Ethereum-based ERC-20 token. It secures the network, provides staking features, and also governs the protocol.

Audius History and Roadmap

In 2018, Audius was co-founded by two computer scientists named Roneil Rumburg and Forrest Browning. They both possess Ivy League degrees and have joined the crypto space since the early stage of its evolution. Being lovers of electronic music and crypto veterans, the duo decided to join efforts together to start developing the music/crypto project.

A few months after its innovation, the platform held a Series A round that same year that helped it raise over $5.5 million with participation from General Catalyst, Lightspeed, and Pantera Capital. The Audius mainnet was launched during the last quarter of 2019.

Features of Audius

The Audius platform features two types of nodes that empower and secure the network. These nodes include Content Nodes and Discovery Nodes. Other mechanisms featured on the platform include Content ledger and AudSP.

• Content Nodes

These nodes are used to automatically host, retain, secure, and manage content without the intervention of the artist. These nodes function exclusively with a major focus on maintaining the availability of the music content on behalf of the music creator. They can be run by node operators alongside an active network stake, or the artists themselves hosting their own content.

• Discovery Nodes

These nodes focus on making it possible for a fan to discover music content on the network. It functions as a mechanism for indexing metadata that users can efficiently query on the network.

• Content Ledger

The Audius Content Ledger provides a decentralized process for artists on the Audius network to control their revenue splits, and track content and the content ownership structure. Furthermore, it ensures easy accessibility via its consistent audio content and metadata format specification.

• AudSP

This functions as a decentralized storage protocol that helps to distribute files throughout the Audius protocol. It facilitates a familiar user experience that is simple, easy to navigate, and highly scalable, while also ensuring that the platform features a democratic user interface.

AUDIO Token

As said earlier, AUDIO is the native token of the Audius network. It is an Ethereum-based ERC-20 token. AUDIO is focused on maintaining long-term value in the protocol and they are staked as collateral for value-added services. In 2021, AUDIO was the 99th largest cryptocurrency in terms of market cap.

Use Cases of Audius

Being the utility token of the Audius ecosystem, AUDIO is basically used for three main purposes which include a reward system, security, and governance.

On the Audius network, users are required to stake AUDIO tokens to become eligible and earn rewards in return. Moreso, the tokens are used as the platform’s governance tokens which enable users to propose and vote for potential network updates. Holders of the token are offered the privilege to unlock exclusive content on the platform.

Benefits of Audius

The Audius platform enables lovers and creators of music to enjoy exclusive benefits on the network, making it a go-to platform for artists. Its benefits are as follows:

• It helps music creators maximize their income and maximally enjoy their revenue.
• It terminates complications that come with the intervention of middlemen and their audience.
• It enables users to get a share of network fees as it stakes incentives for running nodes.
• It offers users exclusive voting rights
• It helps music creators to easily sell their talents to a wider audience.

Conclusion

Audius has proven to become a go-to platform for music artists who seek to enjoy the revolutionary system of blockchain empowered music streaming services.

Although the platform is still in its developing stage, it is believed to possess the potential to outstand the music industry in the coming future. Nonetheless, the platform is making efforts to ensure that artists get fair compensation for selling their talents while maximizing their revenue.