Please describe your proposed solution.
How do we perceive the problem?
Copyright law requires when music is "synced" to a visual media, such as a video NFT, metaverse, video game, film, etc, the creator of that visual media is required to obtain permission and approval from the music rightsholder. This agreement for approval and permission is what is known as a synchronization license.
With the rise of UGC (User generated content) showing no signs of slowing down as well as video game and other video content becoming more accessible, it is more important than ever that musicians rights are protected and they works get properly licensed and paid for.
Like many other areas of the music industry, there is a huge lack of transparency and trust. Musicians often encounter predatory agencies, large fees from middlemen, and slow payment-times - sometimes never getting paid!
What is our proposed solution?
What we are proposing is for the team at Firebird Media to build a peer-to-peer marketplace and API to decentralize the listing, discovery, negotiation, and issuance of music licensing for music synchronization.
What the dApp and API will do:
- Listing / Discovery - a marketplace where artists are able to list their assets and be discovered
- Transact the issuance of the sync license
- Synchronization license from a publisher/songwriter, allowing to exploit the original composition and lyrics
- Master use license from a record label/recording artists, allowing to synchronize the sound recording
- Parameterize sync license scope. Each relevant area of scope in a sync license will be parameterized by the rights-holder. This incudes:
- Term
- Territory
- Nature of Use
- Cost
- Marketplace tools
- Build extendibility in the protocol so that we can implement other features such as:
- Smart contract enforcement
- Offers / negotiation
- Bidding
- PWYW (pay-what-you-want) or other variable rate models
What will be the result?
The decentralization of sync licensing using Cardano. The protocol will enable the artists, builders, and licensors (filmmakers, indie game developers, etc) to issue and approve sync licenses. This will allow fees to stay low and middlemen to remain at a minimum.
Who will your project engage?
- Licensor - Musician / label / publisher / music rights-holder
- Licensee - Video game company / filmmaker / metaverse project / podcast / ad agency / content creator / streamer / etc
- Developer / Builder
How you will demonstrate or prove your impact?
To demonstrate and prove the impact, we can measure it quantitatively by the number of users, the number of sync license issued, the number of minutes of songs synced, and the amount of volume and value transacted and paid to musicians.
How does your proposed solution address the challenge and what benefits will this bring to the Cardano ecosystem?
The impact of the successful delivery of this proposal will ultimately increase the number products available for the community to use that help to enrich the ecosystem - with new use case for the uses of music in visual media including film & video, video games, metaverse projects, streaming, podcasts, and more.
This will give more reasons people have to interact with the Cardano blockchain that can help further drive more adoption, feedback and further innovation. The successful funding and delivery of this proposal will provide a better alternative over current centralized providers.
According to Songtradr & Digital Music News 2022 Global Sync Licensing Report,
"Despite production obstacles stemming from the pandemic, digital advertising spending grew by double digits in 2020 . And following estimated growth of 25% for the overarching U.S. ad industry in 2021, at a total of about $284.3 billion, the market is predicted to crack $300 billion in the U.S. and $700 billion globally in 2022."
With virtually every visual-media segment poised to continue growing, all signs suggest that demand for high quality music will be greater than ever. This means music synchronization industry has a vast potential for intersegment exposure - the audiovisual interaction and collaboration between many large industries including: film, video games, advertisement, and metaverse.
How do you intend to measure the success of your project?
The project's impact on Cardano's productivity and long-term growth can be measured through increased adoption in the metrics of number of total syncs and total volume of sales, expanded use cases in metaverses and video games, and positive user feedback.
As part of our project's success measurement, we aim to gather valuable insights through user feedback and customer surveys.
Please describe your plans to share the outputs and results of your project?
The outputs of this program will be shared in the Firebird Media social media channels including:
They will also be shared at IRL meetups, conventions, and other events.