The 1999 launch of the file sharing service Napster was a seismic wake up call for the music industry. For many musicians and artists, the path to making a living became exponentially more challenging, particularly when it came to recorded music. Illegal downloads, declining CD sales, measly sales from legal music streaming portals and a consumer move from whole albums to single tracks all had a chilling effect on artists’ businesses.
Enter the blockchain, the distributed ledger technology that many believe may be an elixir to these problems. Known as the software that undergirds Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, it features cryptographically chained blocks of data that cannot be modified. Due to its decentralized, secure properties, its potential applications are immense, with medical records, land use titling, online consumer sites and even gold being among the commodities experimenting with it.
Read MoreOriginal Source: Nasdaq
