Mon, 8 Jan 2018
Though initially developed for use in the finance industry, blockchain technology is proving beneficial for a number of other fields.
The advent of blockchain is set to change the media and entertainment industry, as creators and fans alike stand to benefit from the changes the technology could create. A decentralised system offers significant benefits in terms of giving people access to content, and to make sure creators are fairly compensated.
Below are some areas that blockchain will begin or continue to disrupt in 2018.
Singer-songwriter Imogen Heap was one of the first artists to advocate blockchain in the music industry. Recently the Open Music Initiative (OMI), composed of 200 members including the three major labels Sony, Music, and Warner, as well as YouTube, Netflix, and Spotify have followed suit, and seek to revolutionise royalty payment mechanisms. Only in April 2017, streaming giant Spotify announced that it had acquired blockchain start-up Mediachain Labs, which had been working to leverage blockchain technology in order to help solve problems with attribution, and uses smart contacts based on Ethereum to do so.
Piracy is one of the main concerns that digital distribution has brought to media and entertainment. Blockchain technology can enable more frictionless monetisation of content to handle piracy issues. Whilst it is difficult for blockchain to end illegal content sharing completely, it could offer creators better ways of keeping track of where their work is being distributed without their consent.
MetaX and Data & Marketing Association created adChain last year, an open protocol on the Ethereum blockchain that tags a piece of content and follows it through the Internet to make sure someone sees it. By doing so, it can determine who it was as well as what actions were taken afterwards. adChain works to remove the middle-men and lets many parts of the industry, from agency to publisher to marketer, work together without dependency.
If you are in media and entertainment, 2018 is definitely the year to experiment or invest in blockchain innovation, if you haven’t done so yet. Otherwise, you could be left behind.
Our next investment event will be our Blockchain Innovation Showcase, to be hosted in London at the end of January. This will bring together a range of investors (with an active interest in the blockchain), with a number of innovative blockchain based solution providers and startups.
If you would like to learn more about the event, and how you can get involved, please email cburns@challenge.org, or click here to download the event brochure.
Rebecca Lam
Rebecca Lam