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Spotify makes a move on Blockchain, acquires Mediachain

What truly indicates a disruptive technology’s true potential is its ability to transform traditional industries and advance them into furthermore smooth functioning. Blockchain technology that forms the core of many cryptocurrencies has found applications in many fields. It has gone on to transform many industries from as basic and highly used as financial services  to something as diverse as copyright records databases. The fact that digital confirmations and signatures are associated with every entry into the blockchain that is immutable makes it a number one asset when it comes to carrying out such tasks. Recently Spotify, the music streaming service that allows users to find music, has acquired a blockchain based startup called ‘Mediachain Labs’. Let us dive deep into the acquisition and the dynamics surrounding the venture:

What Mediachain labs offers:

Spotify Hq by Sorosh via Attribution Engine. Licensed under CC BY.

Mediachain Labs has proactively worked on creating a more connected platform for artists. The project has worked on how open, peer-to-peer protocols powered by blockchain can empower artists to reach their audiences more effectively. Mediachain Labs was successful in creating a decentralized data infrastructure, which enabled attribution for creators. It has formulated its own cryptocurrency to reward artists for their works. The team believes a shared data layer network is key to addressing issues of attribution and ownership rights. This also allows a more efficient media model for online creativity.

The copyright information of musical creation:

Jesse Walden, one of the co-founders of Mediachain Labs explained that there is no central database for storing  information about music. The key pieces of information, pertaining to music are who composed the music and which company/persons holds the rights to it. Currently that kind of information is difficult to track given the sheer volume of data. Also the information remains jailed to databases and spreadsheets that cannot be globally indexed or referenced.  Hence Mediachain Labs sees a need to connect the platforms through Blockchain so as to make the information globally accessible and prevent copyright infringements that arise due to ignorance on this front.

Mediachain labs was successful on the images front:

The firm was successful on the visual images front when previously confronted with the same problem. The Mediachain Attribution Engine has been designed to bring together millions of openly licensed images. These images are easy and free to use on the Internet with proper attribution. It is an open sharing platform that allows users to upload images that can be shared if the open to use license is available. The firm is now integrating with Ethereum technologies implying that Spotify would be moving onto Ether realms in the near future.