Le Blockathon de la Musique

music x tech: cross-nation collaboration and critical investigation

This is an interview I gave to CREATIVE.NRW, an agency from North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. CREATIVE.NRW focuses on supporting start-ups in culture, tech and related areas; thus, the interview’s main topics are music business, blockchain and “Le Blockathon de la Musique” for which I developed the concept. The interview that originally has been published in German, is accessible here in English too. There are a few edits in my answers compared to the German version.

The comments that followed the original publication were plenty — 70 and counting. Expect to see a summary of these in another article.

CREATIVE.NRW: On April 29th the “Le Blockathon de la Musique” starts in Cologne. What was the reason for creating such a format?

The trigger was my experience at the “Blockchain and Metadata” working group of the German music industry. The results are reflected in several respects in the concept of the Blockathon. While more and more separate projects and initiatives are being launched, there is a lack of exchange and cooperation. An open platform is required that is suitable for many parties involved, which are different in profile and size.

At the same time, participants from both worlds, from the ecosystem of music, which includes the music industry, and from the technologically creative world, must be brought together. The format of a hackathon allows an intensive exchange, which opens up completely different possibilities than a standard project due to its experimental character.

The Blockathon also offers the opportunity to be the basis for an expandable concept. A vital result of the working group “Blockchain and Metadata” was that the necessary transition of the content economy must be accompanied by processes at the political level, those in education and training as well as socio-cultural processes. However, these cannot be mapped in a single project. The Blockathon, on the other hand, has the potential to mark a starting point for a modular project through the cooperation of partner companies, the cultural industry, creative people, associations and politics.

CREATIVE.NRW: The Blockathon focuses on the interface between music and technology. Thematically, the focus will be on fair revenue models for artists and producers who are involved in the value creation process. What are the particular challenges facing the industry?

Almost everyone involved in the industry and beyond agrees that for decades there has been a so-called “metadata chaos” that paralyses licensing processes and partially misaddresses payments. Only validated and full metadata allow legal certainty and revenue. The reason for this lies in the fragile trust not only between publishers, labels, collecting societies, streaming services and others. However, there is also a lack of understanding between the music and tech worlds to be found.

The will to cooperate in order to clean up metadata is now growing. A lack of transparency (and therefore trust) between music and technology, on the other hand, is intensifying debates such as those on copyright reform in the EU. Although the economic upswing has arrived in the music industry, the revenues from streaming are increasing the imbalance to the detriment of all artists, but first and foremost to the detriment of the vast majority of non-established, independent composers and musicians. This fact is well known, but discussions between musicians and the tech community will intensify considerably. Because new technologies, especially from the field of artificial intelligence, urgently require a joint examination of possibilities and, if necessary, disadvantageous developments. The collaborative work on the topics in the Blockathon can, in turn, offer an approach for this.

CREATIVE.NRW: High hopes for fairer and more transparent remuneration are placed in the blockchain, and the title “Blockathon” also derives from this. How do you feel about that?

Ambivalent. It does not matter which technology is used to map a solution. The solution is not the technology, but the agreement on improved principles, on new workflows, on standards, and above all on their consistent adherence.

Some technologies may be more suitable than others. Concerning blockchain, however, one must not only compile a list of crucial and investigating questions but also find additions that create compatibility with content management and its unique requirements. A new, multidimensional metadata model is needed that determines the reliability of the data suppliers and thus the value of the metadata within the licensing process. For example, if the composer is not known at all, the commercial value of the work for the licensor is zero. However, the more credible and reliable the data sources are that confirm the composer in agreement, the higher the value of the musical work in terms of legally secure licensing.

At the same time, transparent models require increased attention to data protection in terms of GDPR. Transparent remuneration must not mean that unwanted private data is disclosed, and data has to be erasable on demand – even though one outstanding feature of a Blockchain is immutability.

Theoretically, a fair payment in the pay-per-play sense with blockchain is possible, even with automated splits. At first glance, blockchain offers a wide range of suitable features. However, the mapping of a solution onto a technological architecture does not necessarily have to contain blockchain.

These and other examples give an insight into the outstanding efforts that would give Blockchain a more sustainable effect. It is ultimately necessary to work on strategies and concepts that extend the basic Blockchain concept. It is much work to be done, but it certainly would be worth it. This might not be a straight forward answer. But there is no black or white in blockchain.

CREATIVE.NRW: The cooperation partners and participants come from Germany and France. What is the practical aspect of this constellation?

New approaches for the music industry must be thought of internationally, regardless of whether workflows or standards are involved. Common (in the sense of “equal”) solutions are not always possible between two cultures, countries or regions. Differences may have linguistic, legal or cultural reasons. It is, therefore, useful to provide for and develop interfaces in joint work.

The cooperation at the Blockathon requires communication. The advantage is that, due to European harmonisation, cooperation should be relatively unproblematic; it is an exercise for major challenges to come.

The Blockathon implements cooperation at various levels. For example, SACEM and GEMA will work together in a team on a French-German project; private participants from France and Germany will tackle further challenges. With Xavier Costaz (Director Innovations and Partnerships / SACEM) and Marie Gauthier (Co-CTO / Resonate), two French mentors support the participating teams, while the international jury consists of Becky Brook (JAAK), Xavier Costaz and Claudia Jericho (CREATIVE.NRW).

Ultimately, the Blockathon promotes international exchange, cooperation between partner companies of the music industry and regular participants and, besides, cooperation between music and technology.

CREATIVE.NRW: What happens to the results of the Blockathon? Is there a framework in which the results should be presented?

We present a summary of the results on the following day, 2 May, from 11:00 – 12:00 am during the c/o pop Convention in the presence of Minister Prof. Dr Andreas Pinkwart and Consul General of France Dr Olivia Berkeley-Christmann.

Detailed written documentation will be available online in June. A full documentation, that is accessible for all and allows for sustainability of the Blockathon‘s outcome, is something I miss with similar events.

CREATIVE.NRW: What will the music market look like in ten years at best for those involved?

In a best-case scenario, through intensive use of technological services, we will see an approach to a system in which creative people can freely choose what their business model looks like — entirely independent, or with small labels and publishers, or within the framework of a collecting society, or maybe something entirely different. However, if we stay on the ground of the facts, I would rather assume that often poorly argued debates will continue on topics that should require a serious discussion, open for new perspectives. The confrontation, unfortunately, will most likely be accompanied by a constellation in which massive corporations disadvantage the large, if not growing mass of creative people – although these corporations may have only grown to enormous size through blockchain or AI.

For this reason, I see my primary task as bringing together people from music and technology to support a common understanding. It is necessary to jointly develop the best of both worlds and give new impulses.