Hey, it’s TJ Miller, you want some game? Let's Tip Unda The Hat!  

For some of the best independent music from artists you need to know, click, listen and follow spoti.fi/3td3Xol. This week "Iz." Know any Indie artists that need to make the list? Send them to me, if we dig ‘em, they take the number one spot. 

This week, Blockchain in the record biz - Let’s go -  

So two weeks ago Augmented Reality, last week NFT’s, this week blockchain. I just believe this type of technology will be the next big thing in music, so we might as well talk and learn about it together. If you remember, a blockchain is a distributed database that is shared among the nodes of a computer network. As a database, a blockchain stores information electronically in digital format. Blockchains are best known for their crucial role in cryptocurrency systems such as Bitcoin for maintaining a secure and decentralized record of transactions. The thing about blockchain is that it guarantees the fidelity and security of a record of data and generates trust without the need for a trusted third party like a record label. 

Everyone knows the relationship between the artist and record labels have been volatile, yet a necessary evil since the beginning of time when the mob…...uhhh I mean, when Victor Talking Machine started this whole thing. Therefore, on blockchain there can be designed a model that helps artists produce music and be paid fairly for the value they create and consumers can enjoy and share at what they believe to be fair value. Remember when certain A-list artist CDs were 19.99, then Walmart and ‘nem started selling them for $5.99 as a loss leader totally making the consumer hate record labels? Yeah everybody lost in both scenarios - anyway I digress. So with the Blockchain model it  would not exclude labels or digital distributors, but they would be equal rather than dominant in this ecosystem. Back to being confused? So the way I see it, Blockchain and NFTs will be similar to the farm to table movement in the food industry. Straight from the studio to the consumer, it will heighten transparency with metadata and copyrights, eliminate some of these middlemen, shorten royalty payments (now they come once a quarter) and through smart contracts, musicians can be paid for fractions of a cent each time a listener presses play on one of their songs. Meaning royalty payments take place in seconds instead of every three months, four times a year.  

There are several companies already using blockchain and you can click here to see who they are; add to this list familiar names like Soundcloud, Red Bull and Netflix via Open Music Initiative (OMI). The reality is, the current system is broken. The one before that was broken but at least the music industry ran the music industry. Gen Z and Gen Alpha will learn as we do. And at least  blockchain offers an implementation of a global copyright database and allows content creators to have all elements of their musical works captured on a unified system. Ok next week back to marketing. 

This week's #IAOTW - Independent Artists Of The Week is Israel “IzziIz” Charles of Invizable Productions - Educator by day, composer and producer by night. Offering beats and production for lease.  

For more information on this or to hire Unda The Hat as your brand or label consultant send a message via undathehat.com. See you next Tuesday.