Blockchain Technology in the Media and Entertainment Industry

“The most important thing about a technology is how it changes people” — Jaron Lanier

Blockchain technology is associated with Bitcoin and Altcoins, but the technology actually has the scope to improve many other industries.

Blockchain technology can transform certain markets in the field of media and entertainment; especially those where users can benefit from the security and transparency. The technology can be effectively used in payments, funding, monetization and contract enforcement.

Micropayments for Content

Usually when media is placed behind subscription-based paywalls, the websites could miss out on the revenue from users who aren’t ready to pay for an entire subscription. No user wants to pay for a single article or to binge watch a season of some series.

Blockchain-powered micro payments can make pay-per-use consumption feasible. Blockchain’s ability to make a record allows precise tracking of when and how the copyright content is consumed. Micropayment pricing model would normally be inefficient to implement, but its execution could be fully automatic and and cost friendly with blockchain technology.

Elimination of content aggregation

Blockchain technology is a decentralized ledger and the structure can enable content creators such as musicians or writers to share their work directly with consumers and traditional distribution channels. The ledger is beneficial for everyone from large media houses to independent bloggers. A direct relationship can be worked out between an artist and a consumer, eradicating the need for any other party.

Royalty Distribution

As music streaming services continue to become popular, collection and distribution of royalty payments has become more complex and opaque. Every time a song is played as a background tune, or played online, the distributor has to compensate the music’s copyright holder. Disputes occur over the compensation rates of such royalties.

Smart contracts built on a blockchain technology can help bring precision, speed and trust to the process by executing terms and conditions automatically among the different parties. The process can now become much simpler because it would be easy to track a song’s usage and there would be more transparency over contract terms.

Feelium is a blockchain technology platform offering smart contracts for digital trade of goods and services. Smart contracts are self-regulatory computer programs that will execute the terms of a trade without the interference of a third party. Feelium’s smart contracts are cost-effective, secure and user-friendly. Any royalty disputes can be easily prevented by using Feelium’s smart contracts.

Royalty payments can also be quicker and the division of revenue over other artists and stakeholders will be easier. This implementation will cut off the role of copyright collection associations, who currently act as centralized intermediaries in gathering payments for right holders.

Consumer to consumer sales

Illegal peer to peer file sharing of television shows and movies is already very common, but file sharing can become a legal process that can be controlled and monetized. When a particular user shares a file with a friend on a blockchain-hosted network, the content owners can track and even charge a distribution fee for the same. This process can create an additional revenue system and provide better security on how copyright assets are consumed.

Do you think blockchain technology is the solution to all media and entertainment copyright and payment issues? Comment below if you have insights into how the technology can be implemented for this use.