The Evolution of Music from Cassette to Code

The Musicians Journey, Before and Beyond the Bitcoin Economy

Before we knew how to record sound, we experienced music by either singing it ourselves or being in the presence of those who performed it. We couldn't share it beyond our immediate company, and after a live experience, memory was all we had to revisit the melodies.

That changed with the advent of audio recording, and since then music has not only participated in, but continues to lead when it comes to mass adoption of new technology.

I've been witness to this rapid evolution, first hand.  The first time I heard recorded music, it was on a transistor radio.  I got a turntable for my 12th birthday and a Sony Walkman for my 16th.  For the last 2 decades I've worked in artist management; through the evolution of CD to MP3, from MTV to YouTube, from Record Stores to Spotify, and from bulky home entertainment speakers to tiny buds in our ears.  I've also experienced the devastating pause of the $30 billion dollar live music industry of 2020, first hand.

The Need for Disruption

The music industry has been in need of disruption ever since the first record label opened shop.  They held the keys to the entire industry, in a very tight fist.  You couldn't get on radio, tv or into a record store, unless you went through a label. 

And to unlock the right to be heard, artists paid with the rights to their music.

Labels wouldn't offer an artist the full range of its services, unless the artist gave up these rights, most times in perpetuity, which means forever and ever, even after the initial recording and marketing debt was repaid. Kind of like blackmail, but presented as options.

Spotify and Apple Music didn't improve things for artists.  They made it worse.  As controversial as it is to talk about in the music industry, major record labels of the world still own chunks in Spotify.

Smarter Technology, Same Habits

Throughout the decades that mark the evolution of music from cassette to code, it has become less and less of a viable career choice for artists to enter the industry.  This isn't entirely the fault of record labels and the digital streaming giants. Radio streamed music for free long before Napster ended up in court for it. And we pirated music ourselves by recording it from the radio, onto our tape deck and making our own mixtapes long before we made digital playlists.

Napster gave us smarter technology to do what we were already doing. However, as much as the technology was brilliant and paved the way for an entirely new industry in music and video, it was also, once again flawed, because just like the models of old, current streaming platforms are skimming the cream without refilling the milk.

Red Hearts and Blue Thumbs

Social media, starting with MySpace and later replaced by Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tik Tok, revolutionised music marketing by providing artists with direct channels to build and engage communities of fans.

However, as fun as they are to collect, you can't buy dinner with a 100 red hearts.  No number of blue thumbs will pay your rent. And what the major music and video streaming sites pay artists, pales in comparison to the costs of producing and marketing music and video as an independent content creator.

And yet we relentlessly flood music and video streaming sites and social media platforms with content, in exchange for a following.  A following that aren't given much of an opportunity, if any, to contribute directly or with ease, to the artists that they love.  Even if they wanted to. 

Bitcoin suggests that we reconsider this.

The Shift from Shackles to Sovereignty

As a sovereign individual in the information age, you alone hold the keys to your identity, your content and your data; you are able to create and benefit directly from your own value, without the involvement of a traditional middleman or institution, using revolutionary technology and tools to create a store of wealth through community participation and engagement, around the content you create.

This shift from shackles to sovereignty has now become a reality because of the fundamentals of Bitcoin.

Bitcoin is a digital currency that is both a means of exchange and a store of wealth. It enables trustless , secure and immutable transactions directly between the creator and collector, musician and fan, without a middleman, and in a completely decentralised fashion.

Bitcoin ordinals are digital files inscribed directly onto individual units of Bitcoin. These individual units are called satoshis and through the ordinals protocol, artists are able to embed their music files directly to the Bitcoin blockchain itself, essentially turning these satoshis into NFTs.

The challenge when it comes to inscribing music to ordinals is file size and transaction cost. There are various ways in which artists can get around this, for example through a process called recursion, where music can be broken down into parts and then put back together as the whole track.

There are however as yet, still obstacles when using this technology, which is where Layer 2 blockchains and NFTs come into the picture.

Stacks is a layer 2 blockchain built on Bitcoin, that extends its capabilities. In simple terms, Stacks sits ontop of Bitcoin, rooted to its robustness, yet providing more flexible tooling and opportunities for creators. This integration anchors your Stacks NFT to the to the strength and security of Bitcoin allowing larger files sizes with minimal minting fees. These assets are bought and sold on digital marketplaces, like Gamma.

Arno Carstens’ Broken - Live Mix NFT available on Gamma

A New Kind of Connection

NFTs and Ordinals are positively reshaping the music landscape by allowing artists to monetize their work autonomously. They are able to sell music directly to fans, ensuring they receive a fairer share of profits, and ongoing earnings through secondary market sales, giving them the right to value that has not only been unheard of, but unimaginable until now. The technology goes deeper than just sales. It offers a new kind of connection, where artists and their listeners can engage through exciting and exclusive content.

A Genesis Moment

As humanity has evolved, and our resources and stories changed, so did the way in which artists stored our evidence.  From blowing into a pierced thigh bone to minting an NFT on Stacks or inscribing an ordinal to Bitcoin, the evolution of music has been, and continues to be extreme, ground breaking and fearless.  

On an existential level, Bitcoin offers a Genesis moment for the music industry, an opportunity to wipe the slate clean and start over.

On a practical level, the technology means that an artist with a phone and access to the internet, also has equal access to tools and frameworks, designed to enable them to easily become their own autonomous economy.

It's not there yet, it's still being built.  But the message is clear, endless opportunity for the redesign in which we create, trade and listen to music abounds on Bitcoin.

Notes: "Stacks Mix-Tapes" coming to @Stacks and @trygamma soon, brought to you in collaboration with @longstreet_btc and @thiskittyisgood as part of the @StacksOrg DeGrants Pilot Program.

Published on @SubstackInc @LinkedIn and @Reddit