Audius, a blockchain native music streaming platform, hit six million monthly active users in August and announced a partnership with TikTok. Roneil Rumburg, co-founder and CEO of Audius, talks about how Audius works, AUDIO tokenomics, the give and take of decentralization, and more. Show highlights:

• what problems Audius is solving for creators
• how artists are utilizing crypto to connect with fans
• how the crypto components of Audius fit together
• what three utilities AUDIO, the native token of Audius, offers holders
• why Audius requires over $500K in AUDIO tokens to run a node
• why AUDIO’s inflation rate is higher than other popular tokens like Ethereum or Bitcoin
• which portions of Audius are centralized versus decentralized
• where the majority of Audius’s listens come from (hint: it’s not the app)
• how Audius has created a “password” system to make blockchain technology easier to use for non-crypto natives
• why Audius uses both Solana and Ethereum
• how big-name artists like Diplo found their way onto Audius
• how Audius makes it easier to upload music to TikTok
• what’s next for Audius

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Episode Links

 

Roneil Rumburg

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/roneilr 

 

Audius

• Website: https://audius.co/ 
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/AudiusProject 
• Whitepaper: https://whitepaper.audius.co/AudiusWhitepaper.pdf 
• Discord: https://discord.com/channels/557662127305785361/806017242734395413 

 

What is Audius?

• Decrypt: https://decrypt.co/resources/what-is-audius-the-decentralized-music-sharing-and-streaming-service
• Messari: https://messari.io/asset/audius/profile
• Coindesk: https://www.coindesk.com/business/2020/11/11/audius-has-big-numbers-by-crypto-standards-but-can-it-take-on-soundcloud/ 

 

TikTok + Audius Coverage

• Audius: https://twitter.com/AudiusProject/status/1427299274325323779 
• Rolling Stone: https://www.rollingstone.com/pro/news/tiktok-sounds-streaming-crypto-blockchain-nfts-audius-1211699/

 

General Coverage

• 6M monthly users
• • https://twitter.com/AudiusProject/status/1433248161443684356

• Moving to Solana (Oct 2020):
• • https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2020/10/29/audius-the-decentralized-spotify-is-moving-part-of-its-service-to-solana-blockchain/
• 5M monthly users (Aug 5):
• • https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2021/08/05/blockchain-based-music-streaming-service-audius-up-to-5m-monthly-users/ 
• Copyright nightmare (The Verge 2019)
• • https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/9/20905384/audius-blockchain-music-streaming-service-copyright-infringement-piracy 
• NFTs (April 2021)
• • https://decrypt.co/65808/crypto-streaming-music-service-audius-nfts
• Token Drop (Oct 2020):
• • https://medium.com/audius/welcome-audio-to-mainnet-409009bc130c 
  • https://decrypt.co/46390/audius-distributes-crypto-rac-deadmau5-listeners
• Youtube + Audius project
• • https://youtubetoaudius.com/ 
• Music Racer:
• • https://store.steampowered.com/app/893030/Music_Racer/ 
• Raises
• • https://musically.com/2020/10/26/decentralised-streaming-service-audius-raises-another-1-25m/
  • https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/08/audius/
  • https://musically.com/2020/08/03/blockchain-music-service-audius-raises-3-1m-funding-round/ 
• Node requirements:
• • https://blog.audius.co/posts/a-primer-on-audio-staking#:~:text=All%20node%20operators%20are%20required,cost%20slightly%20more%20to%20operate. 

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