Could bitcoin save the music industry?

[thatguyrob]

I was wondering if it would be possible to store music on the blockchain the same way the ledger is stored? Then you could sell private keys that give a program access to the data so that the music can be streamed directly from the blockchain? Is this kind of thing possible with bitcoin or another alt-coin in the future? Because this would have positive impact on the music industry as well as any other industry that are having issues with piracy. I'm just trying to stay informed about the potential impact of this technology.   

[franky1]

an altcoin with a 5mb per transaction rule,,, then anything is possible.

just dont expect anyone to download the blockchain

[S4VV4S]

an altcoin with a 5mb per transaction rule,,, then anything is possible.

just dont expect anyone to download the blockchain

Actually, they could store licensing info on the blockchain.
So, no need for 5mb

[jbrnt]

I can't imagine how big the blockchain would be if the actual music is stored on it. The purpose of the blockchain is to solve the trust issue on an open ledger. Music doesn't need that. It would be pointless to create a music blockchain.

[S4VV4S]

I can't imagine how big the blockchain would be if the actual music is stored on it. The purpose of the blockchain is to solve the trust issue on an open ledger. Music doesn't need that. It would be pointless to create a music blockchain.

Theres no need for music to be stored on it just licensing info.
However, how is one to overcome piracy?

[dwma]

You might wish to read a bit about Bitshares Music.  They're trying to tackle a similar problem, but streaming off the blockchain would be inferior to just downloading an mp3.  A specialized DAC/DAE could do this type of stuff and we may very well see it disrupt the music industry 10 years from now.  You pay the DAC and it gives you the music.  Eliminating the parasitic middlemen that have plagued the music industry for decades.

[phillipsjk]

Because this would have positive impact on the music industry as well as any other industry that are having issues with piracy.  

This is becoming a FAQ.

• The Bitcoin blockchain uses "proof-of-work" to prevent counterfeiting.
• The entertainment industry has been pushing to conflate unauthorized copying with counterfeiting physical goods.
• People then confuse the Block-chain with "copy protection": when in fact, it has the opposite purpose.

People are encouraged to keep a copy of the block-chain. Most people don't bother because it is inconvenient or expensive. The only closely guarded secret in bitcoin is the private keys for spending coins. They are guarded secrets because they have no "copy protection".

Music with effective copy protection is worthless anyway: it is a means to share information. If it can't be heard, what is the point?

[thatguyrob]

I see, thanks guys you gave me something to think about. It's not about the data on the blockchain it's about the ownership. So you are saying would need a completely different system to store sensitive hidden data like licence info or software keys.

[thatguyrob]

Thanks dwma, I will look up the Bitshares Music project. So does anybody know of an alt-coin project that attempts to facilitate the transfer of ownership of encrypted or hidden data?

[phillipsjk]

Thanks dwma, I will look up the Bitshares Music project. So does anybody know of an alt-coin project that attempts to facilitate the transfer of ownership of encrypted or hidden data?

Encryption is not copy protection.

TL;DR: Your are trusting the viewer to not retain the decryption key after viewing the work.

[franky1]

I can't imagine how big the blockchain would be if the actual music is stored on it. The purpose of the blockchain is to solve the trust issue on an open ledger. Music doesn't need that. It would be pointless to create a music blockchain.

Theres no need for music to be stored on it just licensing info.
However, how is one to overcome piracy?

the way i interpreted what the OP meant was actual songs were stored on the blockchain. and a program such as itunes stored privkeys. so that when a user buys a song they are just buying the privkey to access the song. the flaw i seen was a big fat blockchain bloating peoples hard drives.

the other concept as those quoted above have envisioned is that each public key represents a song licence. and that the software stores the privkeys to show users have access to the licence to then be able to play a song from a separate music cloud host. but that's then centralizing it, where musicians have to upload to a central cloud  and then get the service to sell the songs on their behalf.

i see another flaw, which affects both cases. the communication of the privkey. if a customer gets to see the privkey he can pass it to all his contacts and they get the song for free. so how to update the privkey wallet of customers, with new privkeys without them actually seeing the privkey.

[thatguyrob]

Could you do this using a protocol in a similar way that bitcoin does? You could force the nodes on the network to change the encryption keys during a transfer of ownership. The same way bitcoin does by signing data, hashing, then signing again. Am I wrong? Then the network could serve music to only one node at a time. Discrepancies in the protocol would result in a disconnect from the network.

[phillipsjk]

Could you do this using a protocol in a similar way that bitcoin does?

No.

[bitsmichel]

I was wondering if it would be possible to store music on the blockchain the same way the ledger is stored? Then you could sell private keys that give a program access to the data so that the music can be streamed directly from the blockchain? Is this kind of thing possible with bitcoin or another alt-coin in the future? Because this would have positive impact on the music industry as well as any other industry that are having issues with piracy. I'm just trying to stay informed about the potential impact of this technology.  

Music copying will be possible, even if music is streamed. One could record directly from the sound output.  Back in the 80s people could did that, and that will always work.

I think the music industry needs to change business model, the current model is not sustainable. For example, an ad-based model. Place ads on a site where you can listen your songs. Each time a fan listens a song online, you get paid by the ads.  Or incorporate ads inside your mp3s (or lyrics) that people can download for free, paid by customer companies. An alternative is the Google data collection business model. To go against copying is a dead end, we are reaching the technological state where we can make atom based movies and store data inside dna.

[Gianluca95]

No, bitcoin don't have all of this power !

If we want to save music industry, we mustn't download music from internet 

[RepublicSpace]

maybe the question should be next: could Bitcoin replace iTunes in the music industry?

[PedritoCR]

maybe can do it that but only time will tell

[allthingsluxury]

Interesting concept. As we know, artist are already proving that they are embracing Bitcoin. We see this with the large number of musicians who have recently begun to accept Bitcoin.

[cryptozark]

People need to prove to the music industry that Bitcoin is worth embracing first.  Recently, the first major label artist announced that they were accepting bitcoin and Reddit barely flinched.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/search?q=mastodon&restrict_sr=on

[Beliathon]

This is silliness, nothing can save the music industry as we know it. The future of digital content (be it music, videos, whatever) is entirely donation / crowdsource based. All information wants to be free, and it will get its way sooner or later. Ergo, copyright will soon be obsolete.

Look at Star Citizen for a good example of what is possible with a donation model.