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Comment by jar3624 | Hacker News Reader

I really hope Ethereum takes off. I think this will go a long way of cutting out the middle men between the customer and "content maker". I even hear all the code that runs on Ethereum is open source which makes it even more transparent/turstworthy. Its the cure to capitalism ! hopefully

See http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/imogen-heap-shows-how-music-smart-c...

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It's not a money problem, it's a marketing one. I work alongside the music industry in the code world (won a VMA along the way) and see how labels really work. The problem isn't so much about album sales and streaming money going straight to the creator (though not enough does by a long shot) but rather that if you're not signed to a label and have access to their marketing engine then no one will ever hear your music.

There are plenty of places like bandcamp where you can find great music and buy it directly from the artist with them taking most of the cut, but the numbers of people buying are so low it doesn't matter. With labels, I've literally watched them take a nobody band and decide they're going to be the next thing. They finish their album, label foots the bill for a big music video, PR team call$ pitchfork or world star or whatever site is genre appropriate, band gets a frontpage feature, radio play start$, and next thing you know album sales are way up, tour tickets are sold out and label made bank.

The problem is discovery and curation and ethereum doesn't fix that.

"If you're not signed to a label and have access to their marketing engine then no one will ever hear your music"

Unless you can get popular on youtube.

Just what I was thinking. It seems like the music industry could be a great use-case.

Direct link to the Imogen Heap alpha: https://alpha.ujomusic.com/#/imogen_heap/tiny_human/tiny_hum...

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