What if someone started a real underground music label on the dark web. Bitcoin only, no banks, no streaming and no middlemen. Artists could drop music, earn for say 5 or 10 years, then the rights go to the public domain. No corporate ownership, no lifetime contracts.
Could a label like that actually work?
Why would an artist sign with a label that has none of the marketing, distribution, or legal capabilities of a major label and serves an extremely limited/niche audience (bitcoin users)? Why would they give up their IP for free when it’s how they pay rent?
I think the system you’ve envisioned is unnecessarily limited and lacks the main reasons to sign with a label in the first place. I recognize labels are largely shitty and mistreat their artists, but they still serve a purpose.
More options for art is not a bad thing, constraints are.
Sure, but how is your proposal any better than an artist just releasing their work on bandcamp or soundcloud? At least those platforms accept common payments. I really think that your insistence on crypto tanks the whole idea, as it significantly limits who would actually get the music in the first place.
Releasing music isn’t like software development, the audience doesn’t have the familiarity with or, for the most part, the facility to use crypto. As far as the average Joe knows, crypto is the domain of scammers and criminals, and it’s largely not useable as currency in day to day life.
I just wonder what music culture looks like if you strip out banks, ads, and algorithms entirely. Not saying crypto fixes it, just that it changes who holds the keys.
“ability to pay for food” is not constraint