“ If we make the music industry transparent and more democratic , allowing artists to get paid what they deserve , that for me is success ”
– Choon Co-founder and DJ Gareth Emery
Though aware that the volatility of the cryptocurrency market may not be for everyone , Emery is excited about “ leveraging the power of blockchain for what it ’ s really good at ” – financial security and public transparency . “ We need this because of the decentralised nature of Choon ,” he says . “ Meanwhile , until the blockchain catches up , we handle other elements in a centralised way . For example , we deliver the actual music streaming via a central server because distributed file storage is not reliable at present .”
Emery admits the challenge lies in finding enough quality product to build Choon and expects the balance of genres on the service to be 80 % in favour of electronica . “ Most of the catalogue existing right now is signed to those old legacy systems , but we ’ re okay with that ; we ’ d rather not lock ourselves in and have more freedom . We ’ re not interested in streaming Elvis and The Beatles . If you want to listen to those artists there are many options out there to do that . We ’ re not even interested in Calvin Harris or Ed Sheeran , we want to find the next artists like these that are making music in their bedrooms currently undiscovered , so that when they look at the portfolio of options they ’ re not just signing up to a 360 deal and losing the rights to their music for life .”
So , for Emery , what would represent a measure of success for Choon in the coming year ? “ If we make the music industry transparent and more democratic , allowing artists to get paid what they deserve , that for me is success .”
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