Web3 Music and Content Monetization Platform

Abstract

The global creator economy exceeds $100 billion but remains dominated by platforms such as YouTube, Spotify, and Patreon. These platforms control distribution and monetization, charging high fees, delaying payments, and exercising censorship. To address these issues, a decentralized Web3 Music and Content Monetization Platform is proposed. The system uses blockchain, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), decentralized storage, and crypto wallets to enable creators to upload, mint, and sell their digital content directly to audiences. Each asset is stored on the Inter Planetary File System (IPFS) and represented on the Polygon blockchain as an ERC-721 token. Consumers purchase NFTs via MetaMask, and smart contracts automatically transfer payments to creators, enforcing royalties without intermediaries. A prototype demonstrates NFT minting, wallet-based payments, and content access control, validating the technical feasibility of the approach. Compared with centralized systems, the proposed platform offers instant payments, transparent ownership, and censorship resistance, aligning with similar advancements in decentralized music and publishing platforms. Future work includes exploring multi-chain support, decentralized governance through DAOs, and integrating metaverse applications.