Music Streaming Application using Blockchain

Abstract

Modern day entertainment and music streaming has largely been dependent on digital technologies. People prefer subscription based online services to buying physical copies of the music albums. Online streaming services like Spotify, Apple iTunes, Google Music offer great services to the listener with ease. However, drawbacks to these systems includes long delays in payouts for the artists, lack of transparency, confusing payments and licensing terms. In this paper we propose an application that solves all these three drawbacks by making use of Ethereum blockchain and IPFS protocol. The Ethereum blockchain is used for recording transactions and payment management using smart contracts. As storing large files on the Ethereum network costs a lot, the IPFS protocol is used for storing music files, which is a peer to peer protocol. The frontend is built using Web3.js and both listener and artist interact on the blockchain through browser. A PPP(Pay-Per-Play) model with fixed price or as per artist will be defined in the smart contract. The artist can also add other benefactors and share the pay with them. Streaming will be a free service; however, the listeners can tip the artists for supporting. PPP is a smart contract that will be running on the Ethereum blockchain that will be used to set and reward artists with a fixed set of tokens, native currency of platform, per play. Miners will mine new blocks to be added to the blockchain, for which they will be incentivized with tokens. 25 percent of tokens mined per block will go towards a pool for paying artists for streams of their music. The IPFS nodes for storing and distribution of music will be controlled by the artists. Thus, a complete autonomous system for music streaming can be built with least involvement of third parties, and a direct relationship between artist and listener.