The digital music store eMusic has introduced its own token called eMU-Token. This is intended to enable musicians to generate higher revenues through royalties.

The company’s president, Tamir Koch, explains the company’s move by saying that streaming leads to declining income for artists. According to Koch, overall revenues and acceptance have increased, but the model is by and large flawed. The performers only receive a fraction of the royalties, while the middlemen take an ever larger share of the cake.

“eMU token” to create a sustainable ecosystem

eMusic has now announced to counter this problem with a token. With the token the company wants to create a sustainable ecosystem. The coin, which is planned under the name eMU-Token, is a means of payment that will pay artists fairly. According to Koch, this is to be achieved through a transparent flow of royalties to the musician.

According to a company spokesperson, blockchain is intended to digitalize music distribution, which would enable the company to release more income for the artists. The eMU token is also expected to create additional opportunities, such as artist support through merchandising, crowdfunding or other offers.

Interaction with artists and rewards

Fans who act on the platform and share music or rate it with reviews should also be rewarded with eMU tokens. Furthermore, the artists will be able to use the tokens to pay for their own activities, such as a self-organized tour. Authors who publish their music on the platform should receive at least 50 percent of the revenues generated. Crypto-currencies are considered to have great potential in the music industry, as the intermediary instances between performer and consumer can be directly bypassed by them.

The provider eMusic has been in existence since 1998 and, according to the company website Owler, employs almost 280 people with an annual turnover of 65.7 million US dollars.

*Originally published in German at CVJ.ch