Imogen Heap releases a single on the Ethereum blockchain

The Story

Musical artist Imogen Heap released her single 'Tiny Human' on Ujo Music, a platform for artists to distribute their music via the Ethereum blockchain. The platform shows all of the creative contributors that made the song possible, and the revenue percentage each respective contributor will receive automatically via 'smart contracts' when the song is purchased by customers.

The Implications

This is one of the first blockchain releases of digital media, giving us a peak into the near future of decentralized distribution. Old record label models have already changed drastically, but now artists are finding ways to completely circumvent the usual channels and avoid unnecessary revenue splits. This is also innovative because the downloaded music has no attached DRM.  Users can even download stems of the song, eg. the drums, to legally create their own remixes. Supporters claim that this is the future of music rights and distribution.