How Crypto Streaming Service Audius Hit Six Million Monthly Active Users - Ep.270

Audius, a blockchain native music streaming platform, hit six million monthly active users in August and announced a partnership with TikTok. Roneil Rumburg, co-founder and CEO of Audius, talks about how Audius works, AUDIO tokenomics, the give and take of decentralization, and more. Show highlights:

what problems Audius is solving for creators

how artists are utilizing crypto to connect with fans

how the crypto components of Audius fit together

what three utilities AUDIO, the native token of Audius, offers holders

why Audius requires over $500K in AUDIO tokens to run a node

why AUDIO’s inflation rate is higher than other popular tokens like Ethereum or Bitcoin

which portions of Audius are centralized versus decentralized

where the majority of Audius’s listens come from (hint: it’s not the app)

how Audius has created a “password” system to make blockchain technology easier to use for non-crypto natives

why Audius uses both Solana and Ethereum

how big-name artists like Diplo found their way onto Audius

how Audius makes it easier to upload music to TikTok

what’s next for Audius

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Episode Links

Roneil Rumburg

Twitter: https://twitter.com/roneilr 

Audius

Website: https://audius.co/ 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AudiusProject 

Whitepaper: https://whitepaper.audius.co/AudiusWhitepaper.pdf 

Discord: https://discord.com/channels/557662127305785361/806017242734395413 

What is Audius?

Decrypt: https://decrypt.co/resources/what-is-audius-the-decentralized-music-sharing-and-streaming-service

Messari: https://messari.io/asset/audius/profile

Coindesk: https://www.coindesk.com/business/2020/11/11/audius-has-big-numbers-by-crypto-standards-but-can-it-take-on-soundcloud/ 

TikTok + Audius Coverage

Audius: https://twitter.com/AudiusProject/status/1427299274325323779 

Rolling Stone: https://www.rollingstone.com/pro/news/tiktok-sounds-streaming-crypto-blockchain-nfts-audius-1211699/

General Coverage

6M monthly users

https://twitter.com/AudiusProject/status/1433248161443684356

Moving to Solana (Oct 2020):

https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2020/10/29/audius-the-decentralized-spotify-is-moving-part-of-its-service-to-solana-blockchain/

5M monthly users (Aug 5):

https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2021/08/05/blockchain-based-music-streaming-service-audius-up-to-5m-monthly-users/ 

Copyright nightmare (The Verge 2019)

https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/9/20905384/audius-blockchain-music-streaming-service-copyright-infringement-piracy 

NFTs (April 2021)

https://decrypt.co/65808/crypto-streaming-music-service-audius-nfts

Token Drop (Oct 2020):

https://medium.com/audius/welcome-audio-to-mainnet-409009bc130c 

https://decrypt.co/46390/audius-distributes-crypto-rac-deadmau5-listeners

Youtube + Audius project

https://youtubetoaudius.com/ 

Music Racer:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/893030/Music_Racer/ 

Raises

https://musically.com/2020/10/26/decentralised-streaming-service-audius-raises-another-1-25m/

https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/08/audius/

https://musically.com/2020/08/03/blockchain-music-service-audius-raises-3-1m-funding-round/ 

Node requirements:

https://blog.audius.co/posts/a-primer-on-audio-staking#:~:text=All%20node%20operators%20are%20required,cost%20slightly%20more%20to%20operate. 

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