The Bank Of America predicts long term music industry disruption as Audius help to shift power from the record companies to fans and artists alike. This could be a massive sea change in how the current music industry business model works.
As leading DSPs have built economic moats around their businesses through record label deals and personal data leveraging, competition is a concern, according to the note. According to Audius, smaller DSPs are facing a “Catch-22 scenario.” Adoption is needed to push artists onto their platforms, but artist participation is needed to drive adoption, the company said.
The platform plans to distribute 90% of revenues to artists and 10% to node operators by removing intermediaries, resulting in a “decentralized DSP that shifts power, profits, control and governance from record labels and centralized DSPs to artists and fans,” the note says.
The streaming service said last week that it was offering a new feature for creators to monetize their content by allowing listeners to send tips to artists via its governance token AUDIO.
Bank of America said the music industry is ripe for disruption. Still, Audius’ adoption trends and limited music offering relative to larger DSP’s are likely to limit “short-term disruption risk,” however, disruption over the longer term is still possible.
Competition is an issue, as leading DSPs have built “economic moats” around their businesses by offering large music offerings through record labels and by leveraging personal data to improve the user experience, the note says. Smaller DSPs, such as Audius, are faced with a “Catch-22 scenario,” as user adoption is needed to push artists onto their platform, but it also needs artists to join to drive user adoption, it added.
The bank notes that while Audius’ platform has attracted mainstream artists, including deadmau5, Diplo, Skrillex and Weezer, its usage growth has slowed since December 2021.
There are also potential legal risks related to Audius’ inability to remove music that infringes on copyright that should not be ignored, the note added.
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