Blockchain is transforming sectors beyond finance. In this newsletter, we shift from traditional investments to examine a groundbreaking blockchain application in the music industry. The CEO and Co-Founder of Pixelynx, Inder Phull, discusses how on-chain music rights and royalties are altering ownership and why this is crucial for artists and investors.
Additionally, Ronald Elliot Yung from RaveDAO addresses questions about these developments and their impact on investments in an expert Q&A.
– RialCenter
Remix, Rights & Revenue: Why Onchain Music Infrastructure Is the Future
A fundamental change, redefining how music is protected, managed, and monetized.
Introduction: A Broken Symphony
The digital revolution has equipped musicians with unparalleled tools to create, collaborate, and reach global audiences. However, this fast-paced evolution has introduced various challenges. While the Internet has changed the landscape of creation, distribution, and consumption, the systems for protecting and monetizing creative content, such as copyright laws and royalty structures, haven’t kept pace. Artists struggle to maintain control over their work, experiencing inadequate attribution and unfair compensation.
For advisors, clients in the music industry or investors interested in these assets may benefit from understanding the evolution of this field as assets transition on-chain.
The frameworks governing the industry were developed in a pre-Internet era, and concepts like global digital rights were not considered. Today, unauthorized samples often drive TikTok hits, AI-generated music overwhelms streaming platforms, and artists struggle to earn a living.
Legal avenues to take advantage of emerging opportunities, like AI or user-generated content virality, remain obstructed by outdated contracts and unclear ownership data. Enter onchain rights infrastructure: a transformation that could redefine how we protect, manage, and monetize music.
The Problem: Rights Are Fragmented, and Creators Lose
There’s a reason music on social media hasn’t generated a revenue stream for artists: current copyright systems fail to address the tangled web of ownership and usage rights associated with modern music applications, like remixing and user-generated content.
This complexity costs the industry billions, often leaving creators underpaid and legally exposed. Creators are moving toward owner-created content, where they can track usage and get compensated regardless of where their assets are utilized.
The Future: Onchain Rights Infrastructure
Onchain rights infrastructure revolutionizes the backend of the music industry, offering rightsholders undisputed, verifiable ownership of their work with rights transparently programmed into the registration. This transparency enables music to glide across platforms and applications while automatically tracking attribution and verifying provenance, eliminating the inefficiencies of traditional licensing processes. Artists receive instant payment, and their rights are enforced in real-time.
Imagine if every track included a smart contract detailing rights holders, ownership percentages, and licensing terms in code. If someone wanted to use the song in a remix or sample, the contract would clarify what’s permissible and automatically allocate royalties.
This is what on-chain rights infrastructure enables.
On a blockchain, rights can be:
- Transparent — visibility on ownership
- Programmable — remix terms and splits are encoded
- Traceable — derivatives and remixes are tracked in real time
- Compositional — rights become building blocks, not barriers
To harness emerging technology and meet the needs of future digital consumers, the music industry must adopt a more adaptive approach to rights management and licensing. Onchain rights infrastructure is the solution.
Understanding the move to on-chain rights is crucial; it’s no longer a niche area. Whether advising IP holders on royalty management or guiding investors in exploring music IP as a new asset class, being knowledgeable about how rights and revenue can be encoded on-chain is essential. Just as streaming transformed consumption models, on-chain infrastructure is reshaping ownership systems; those who grasp it early will be best positioned for growth in the digital economy.
– Inder Phull, CEO and co-founder, Pixelynx
Ask an Expert
Q. In a world of corporate festivals and algorithm-driven playlists, how can decentralized models foster new music scenes, community leadership, and fan ownership?
Music has flourished in local settings: underground clubs, bedroom producers, DIY scenes. Blockchain presents an opportunity to elevate these microcultures worldwide, placing influence in the hands of those immersed in the culture, rather than those merely profiting from it.
For investors, this means early access to unexploited cultural assets and the energy of self-organizing communities. Users seek experiences beyond technology; authentic engagement cannot be manufactured. The most successful models will achieve a “local-to-global” dynamic, using technology to empower individuals rather than just platforms and ensuring that new voices gain recognition and support before being lost in mainstream trends.
Q. What ongoing issues can blockchain and AI resolve in live events, and what remains unresolved in the music economy?
Blockchain addresses ticket fraud, opaque financial splits, and the absence of fan ownership at events. On-chain tickets are secure and traceable, facilitating transparent resale and royalty flows. AI enhances personalization, automates support, and utilizes vast amounts of fan data yet often ignored by venues. Nevertheless, technology alone cannot resolve the music industry’s deepest challenges. Community-building, trust, and curation remain inherently human pursuits. No blockchain can replace the effort required to build credibility or the magic of a local scene thriving independently of the mainstream. Even the best AI cannot identify the next major artist without being connected to culture. Investors and advisors must be cautious of assuming that data and automation are sufficient for fostering engagement and loyalty; the most compelling opportunities will integrate digital tools with genuine world understanding, empowering communities rather than merely optimizing transactions.
Q. What blind spots exist in the current “Web3 x Music” hype cycle, and where should advisors exercise caution?
Numerous proposals claim to “revolutionize” music with tokens and NFTs, but hype cannot replace authentic connections or create sustainable grassroots energy that sustains festivals. Advisors should look beyond superficial metrics like user counts or social media activity and ask: Are local communities genuinely thriving? Is governance meaningful or merely a buzzword? Can the model attract and retain serious talent and loyal fans? The successful platforms will treat culture as a living ecosystem, not a fleeting opportunity, balancing on-chain innovation with the off-chain effort necessary to build trust.
– Ronald Elliot Yung, core contributor at RaveDAO
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