With the increasing popularity of music streaming platforms, enjoying music has become more convenient than ever. However, for many artists, challenges such as low income, lack of transparency, and limited control over the release and sale of their work remain major obstacles in the traditional music industry. To tackle these issues, Audius was born, revolutionizing the way artists interact with their audience through a decentralized network platform, enabling artists to directly profit from their work.
Audius is a decentralized music streaming service that allows listeners to directly support artists with its native cryptocurrency, AUDIO. By the end of 2021, the platform had attracted nearly 6 million monthly active users and over 100,000 artists, demonstrating its growing influence. Founded in 2018 by Forrest Browning and Roneil Rumburg, Audius aims to eliminate intermediaries between artists and listeners, giving artists more freedom to control their work and its profits.
Unlike traditional music streaming services that pay artists based on play counts, Audius allows artists to retain full ownership of their music and decide how to profit from it. According to the platform's rules, music curators can receive 90% of AUDIO token revenue, with the remaining 10% distributed to node operators who maintain the network's stability.
Audius was initially built as a Layer 2 blockchain protocol on Ethereum's sidechain, the POA Network. To address scalability issues and improve performance as the platform's user base grew, Audius decided to migrate its content management system to the Solana blockchain in 2020. However, its native cryptocurrency, AUDIO, remains on the Ethereum blockchain. As an ERC-20 governance token, AUDIO enables its holders to vote on network changes and upgrades and unlock exclusive platform features through staking.
Audius fundamentally changes the music industry's operation by creating a decentralized platform that directly connects artists and listeners. By eliminating traditional music industry intermediaries like record companies and music distribution platforms, artists have the opportunity to interact directly with their audience while retaining copyright and ownership.
Unlike traditional payment models that rely on track play counts, Audius adopts a more comprehensive approach. It considers not only the artists' play counts but also their engagement, interaction with fans, and overall user engagement on the platform. This model encourages more creation and interaction, rather than just chasing play counts.
Artists can use Audius's decentralized nodes to upload and share their music, ensuring full ownership of their work. The presence of these nodes not only guarantees the platform's decentralized nature but also provides artists with a publication channel free from centralized censorship and control.
Audius offers artists multiple ways to profit from their audio content, including rewards in AUDIO tokens for entering the top five weekly tracks, top five weekly playlists, top ten monthly API applications, and for the first track upload after verifying their social media accounts.
The platform supports artists in interacting with their community through artist tokens, which allow holders to access exclusive content, such as unreleased tracks or participation in remix contests. Additionally, based on the level of interaction between artists and fans and the audience size, Audius sometimes airdrops AUDIO tokens to artists, further incentivizing community participation and content creation.
Looking ahead, Audius plans to introduce support for USDT and other stablecoins, enabling users to unlock paid content. This move will provide artists with more revenue channels while also offering listeners a richer music experience.
The Audius Token (AUDIO) is an essential native cryptocurrency within the Audius ecosystem. It serves as the foundation for the platform's operation and plays multiple roles, from ensuring network security to incentivizing content creation and participation.
In Audius, AUDIO has three core functions. First, it secures the network by incentivizing node operators to maintain stable and secure operations. Second, as a governance token, AUDIO grants its holders voting rights in the platform's decision-making process, including votes on platform upgrades and improvements. Lastly, AUDIO is used to unlock exclusive features and content on the platform, providing a richer user experience.
As an ERC-20 token, AUDIO's initial total supply is 1 billion, with no cap to support the network's long-term operation and development. As of December 2021, over 500 million AUDIO tokens were in circulation, reflecting its widespread acceptance among users and investors.
Audius ensures its platform's security through a decentralized network of nodes, where anyone can become a node operator by holding and staking AUDIO tokens. This mechanism not only enhances the network's decentralization but also its security. The more AUDIO staked, the greater the node's weight in the network, increasing its chances of being used for music content search and indexing.
In the Audius network, there are two main types of nodes: content nodes and discovery nodes. Content nodes are responsible for storing, protecting, and managing music content, allowing artists to become content nodes to directly control and own their work. Discovery nodes index the music content and its metadata uploaded to Audius, enabling fans to quickly find their favorite artists or songs.
To strengthen content security and immutability, nodes regularly submit snapshots of artists' works to the blockchain. This process creates a permanent record with a timestamp, ensuring the originality and ownership of the work are reliably protected. In this way, Audius not only secures music content but also provides artists with a transparent and trustworthy platform to share their creations.
In the Audius ecosystem, AUDIO is more than just currency. It also acts as a governance token, enabling its holders to participate in the network's governance process. This mechanism ensures the platform's decentralization, allowing community members to directly influence Audius's future direction.
Holders can engage in the network's operation by staking AUDIO tokens to become part of content or discovery nodes. Additionally, even if users do not operate nodes, they can gain governance rights by creating value for the network and participating in voting on significant network update proposals.
Audius encourages its community members to share insights on the protocol, fostering an open governance culture. In the governance process, each AUDIO token equals one vote, meaning rewards distribution and platform decisions are closely linked to artists, fans, and node operators within the platform, sharing the experience of decentralized music streaming. Through such mechanisms, Audius ensures all stakeholders have a voice in the platform's development, collectively shaping its future.
AUDIO tokens are key to fan-artist interactions on the Audius platform, not only facilitating connections between them but also providing artists with new channels to grow their fanbase. By staking AUDIO tokens, artists can access a suite of dedicated content publishing tools, such as issuing exclusive artist tokens, thereby enhancing fan engagement.
Fans holding artist tokens can enjoy a range of exclusive content and experiences, such as access to unreleased tracks or participation in special remix contests. This mechanism increases fan engagement while also creating more opportunities for artists to interact with their fans and reward loyalty.
On Audius, holding a certain amount of AUDIO tokens unlocks different VIP levels, offering additional benefits to users. As the amount of AUDIO held increases, users can enjoy higher VIP status and corresponding perks, including profile badges and early access to new features. The setting and benefits of these VIP levels can be adjusted through community governance, ensuring the platform's reward mechanisms stay in sync with user needs.
The functionality of AUDIO not only showcases its value as a cryptocurrency but also reflects Audius's commitment to a community-driven development model. Users can engage in platform governance by holding and staking AUDIO, voicing their opinions and voting on matters such as VIP level requirements and benefits, ensuring the platform evolves in line with its user base's desires and needs.
Audius's core innovation lies in its use of blockchain technology for decentralized operation, providing artists with unprecedented control over their content. Compared to traditional streaming services like Spotify, Audius uses blockchain to ensure artists can directly manage and share their works without third-party intermediaries.
Regarding revenue distribution, Audius offers a fairer model: 90% of earnings go directly to the artists. In contrast, artists in the traditional music industry typically receive only about 12% of total revenue, highlighting Audius's support and value for creators.
Unlike other platforms, Audius gives AUDIO token holders the power to participate in platform governance. Holding and using AUDIO tokens allows users to vote on the platform's future direction, showcasing the advantages of a decentralized network's decision-making process.
Audius provides a unique channel to help artists expand their music's reach through collaborations with social media platforms like TikTok, integrating music with social media and introducing artists to new audiences. Additionally, by integrating with blockchain games like DeFi Land, Audius further extends its presence in the digital realm and the metaverse, offering artists a new platform for promotion and showcase.
First, log into your LBank account and click on the "Trade" option on the page. In the trading interface's search bar, type "AUDIO" to find related trading pairs. Taking AUDIO/USDT as an example, select this trading pair to enter the trading page for AUDIO and USDT.
Scroll down to the "Spot" trading area on the trading page. Here, you'll need to enter the amount of AUDIO you wish to buy. For simplicity, we'll choose a market order in this example. After entering the quantity, click the "Buy AUDIO" button and confirm your order.
After completing the purchase, the AUDIO tokens you've bought will appear in your spot wallet. This marks your successful purchase of AUDIO tokens on the LBank platform.
Audius represents the future of the music industry, a future where blockchain technology empowers direct connections between artists and fans. Through its decentralized operation model, fair revenue distribution, and robust community governance mechanism, Audius redefines the concept of music streaming platforms. As technology continues to evolve and more partners join, the Audius ecosystem will expand further, providing artists with more opportunities to showcase their talents and offering fans a richer and more unique music experience. Looking ahead, Audius is poised to continue leading innovation in music technology, becoming a significant bridge between music and blockchain.
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