Audius is a blockchain based music platform with lofty goals. Their goal is a future where music fans directly support the artists they love directly, with no middle-man and instant payments. Artists upload music to the platform for free, listeners consume it and pay artists directly, and listeners can make money by sharing and engaging with the songs or by making playlists on the platform.
They want artists to get paid more than they do now which is a vision any music artist can get behind.
They’ve grown considerably since 2018 and in 2022 they have around 250,000 artists and seven million listeners on the platform. So is Audius a platform you should join? Maybe, but they still have a lot of work to do.
How much does Audius pay per stream?
$0.00. You read that right, they pay absolutely nothing per stream at the moment. All their talk about making sure artists getting paid more and enabling a better connection with fans is just that – talk.
They do indeed have some type of monetization method, however it’s more of a ‘reward’ system than actual monetization. Here’s how it works:
Every week the top 5 trending songs on the platform get a reward
Every week the top 5 trending playlists on the platform get a reward
Every week the top 5 trending API integrations get a reward
This means as an artist on Audius you only get paid if you have one of the top 5 trending songs that week.
If you find an article online that claims Audius pays upwards of $0.35 per stream, they are likely using an example of an artist that won one of these rewards, and divided out the $AUDIO (the token they use on the platform) amount received at the current rate by the number of streams the song received.
$AUDIO Token
As I mentioned above Audius pays artist with their cryptocurrency $AUDIO token. If you aren’t familiar with how cryptocurrency works, they’re structured around a virtual currency that has value based on its function / utility, supply and demand. It’s not a new concept with Audius, and its similar to other currencies like Ethereum and Solana.
One issue with cryptocurrencies is that they have a massive fluctuation in value over time. The value of 1 $AUDIO token started at around $0.10, and now it’s around $0.30. While that sounds good on paper, when you realize that in the middle they’ve had several spikes over $3 per 1 $AUDIO token you can see how volatile it is.
So if you were to get paid 100 $AUDIO that would currently be worth about $30 USD, but its not unreasonable that 1 month later it could drop to being worth $20, but it could also increase to $40 just as likely. The price is very susceptible to market forces similar to the stock market.
The fact that payments are made via $AUDIO and not a ‘fiat’ currency (regular money) causes this issue, but its also what gives Audius the advantage of promising instant payments to artists (someday, when they add a monetization system).
Turning $AUDIO into Cash
How do you turn these tokens into money though? If you’re not familiar with this stuff this will likely be a frustrating process. While apps like Robinhood and Coinbase make it easy to buy crypto, Audius is not on the popular exchange platforms. To turn $AUDIO into cash you need to transfer it to a wallet, use that wallet on a service like SushiSwap to swap your $AUDIO for another cryptocurrency like Solana or Ethereum, and then transfer that new crypto into an exchange that allows you to sell it for fiat currency.
It’s not a fun process, and a copy-paste error at any stage can easily result in lost tokens that cannot be recovered, and fees will be incurred at every transaction due to the way blockchains work.
The hope is that over time they can make this process more streamlined and less error-prone, but at the moment it can easily take you over an hour to figure out how to pull this off for the first time.
So I Shouldn’t Join Audius?
This is hard to answer – generally the more platforms your music is available on, the better. Audius has a very nice vision for the future, and they’ve been pulling off some impressive partnerships with companies like TikTok, and they’ve managed to allow users to integrate NFT’s into their profile to encourage sales. In addition this year (2022) they added a tipping feature so fans can tip their favorite artists.
The tipping feature is fantastic, but I doubt most artists care about the NFT integration especially considering NFT’s have largely vanished from public discourse with the great crypto crash of 2022. NFT’s are also largely ridiculed online by the general public, something I generally agree with.
If Audius can pull off a solid monetization system artists will likely flourish to the platform and start driving their fanbase there as well. Artists that get in early will likely reap the rewards from this surge of new listeners as with any new platform.
I would say its worth signing up and uploading some music to the platform so you have a presence there, but I wouldn’t spend any effort driving people there yet.
How much does Audius pay per stream? $0.00. You read that right, they pay absolutely nothing per stream at the moment. All their talk about making sure artists getting paid more and enabling a better connection with fans is just that – talk.
The Audius protocol gives everyone the freedom to share, monetize, and listen to any audio. Thanks to $AUDIO, our users can earn a voice in the platform's future through active contributions to the network. Our SoundCloud alternative helps artists monetize their work in creative ways by better engaging true fans.
Audius streams music from a collection of independent and represented artists on its web player and native app. Established and emerging artists can use Audius to host their music, access streaming metrics and build a following with lower financial barriers compared to many other music streaming services.
This means that artists can make more money from their music streaming activities, as they are not paying any fees to the streaming platform. Additionally, Audius has a built-in royalty system that ensures artists get paid for their work.
Can Audius reach $100? No, it's unlikely that Audius can reach $100, as even with the price hovering around $3 this coin is in the first hundred cryptocurrencies by market cap, which is a great position.
Cons: The music is not directly hosted by the Audius platform but the node operators. While it grants artists more freedom, it also makes it difficult to remove content that is violating copyright laws from the platform.
There are just over 100,000 artists on Audius, including relatively well-known names like Skrillex, Weezer, deadmau5, Russ, Mike Shinoda, Diplo, Madeintyo, Odesza, Disclosure, Alina Baraz, and Wuki. Generally, artists start with one or two tracks and later expand as they get positive feedback from fans on the platform.
Unlike the centralized Spotify platform, Audius favors the creators. They offer much more freedom and options to creators. For example, how they can monetize their work. Creators, developers, and even users have much more say on this platform.
TIDAL ranks higher than both Spotify and Apple Music in terms of royalty rate and the direct artist payouts available on the platform. It's definitely worth weighing up your options when deciding which DSP(s) to upload your music to.
In the year 2028, Audius adoption will continue to rise, with regulators starting to accept that crypto is here to stay. Investors could see AUDIO reaching a maximum price of $1.16 by 2028 followed by a minimum price of $1.06. The average price for 2028 is expected to be $1.11.
The following month the news came out that the Audius system had fallen victim to a hack, weakening market confidence. Despite having experienced a small recovery, it sank down again and, on 14 October 2022, the AUDIO token was trading at a little under $0.19.
Who are the CEO, Founders and Directors of Audius? Ranidu Lankage, Co-Founder & CEO, is a founder of 1 company. Forrest Browning, Co-Founder & CPO, is a founder of 1 company.
Despite that, Audius has an abundance of piracy on the platform. Label sources tell Billboard that a copious amount of unlicensed content can be found on the platform. It took Billboard 15 minutes to find on Audius new, unlicensed albums from artists including John Mayer, Nas, J.
Founded in 2018, Audius was inspired by the current situation in the global music industry, which tends to favour celebrity artists over their fellow up-and-coming artists who, in some cases, put in the same or more effort than their celebrity peers.
If you are mainly just looking to earn crypto or even extra cash, Audius is not a good option. That's because this platform offers very limited earning opportunities. You will not be able to earn a significant amount from it.
How much money did 'Here Comes the Sun' generate on Spotify? Music distribution company Ditto Music, headquartered in Liverpool and New York, estimates that "Here Comes The Sun" has generated about $4.37 million from 1 billion Spotify streams, based on U.S. streaming rates.
Audius removes the middleman from the music industry and connects fans directly to the artists. It allows the fans to pay directly to the artists. All that artists have to do is distribute their music tracks through the Audius platform, and the fans will pay to hear the music tracks on the platform.
According to GOV Capital, the AUDIO price prediction states that if you invest in the coin today, the value will be $0.673 on 2024. The asset is suitable for your investment portfolio. According to TechNewsLeader, the Audius price predictions are bullish.
Introduction: My name is Geoffrey Lueilwitz, I am a zealous, encouraging, sparkling, enchanting, graceful, faithful, nice person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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