Everything appears to be fair game for monetizable content these days. Simply said, the creator economy is the age of decentralized media. Individual artists can now make money using a variety of strategies. Much like traditional media companies, including affiliate links, sponsorships, ad revenue, digital sales, and more. That implies that all of the cat videos, hair tips, and TikTok recipes we share with friends and family have the potential to be someone’s only source of food.
Many content producers are making enough money from their work each month to quit their full-time employment. However, the existing business model forces content producers to cede ownership and a sizable portion of their income to websites like YouTube and Spotify who host their work and grow their audiences. We can now explore new technologies that can enable artists and creators in this new creator economy keep control of their content and intellectual property, or even share ownership with their followers if they so want, thanks to cryptocurrency.
Dapps, short for decentralized applications, are the programs that enable this new reality. Let’s examine dapps to see what they are and how producers are utilizing them.
What is it?
Dapps are blockchain-based programs that execute program code for a particular purpose or use case. They function exactly like any other app on your smartphone or computer, with a front-end experience that makes it simple for users to click, scroll, type in text fields, and submit material or data for a specific application. Dapps are similar to regular applications like Instagram from the user’s perspective, with one important exception: their use of blockchain technology to store data associated with users’ crypto wallets on the back end.
There are dapps for every use case, including creative and financial ones. For example, DeFi (decentralized finance) protocols allow users to exchange one currency for another (NFTs).
Smart contracts are used by dapps to autonomously plan, carry out, and settle transactions. This lessens the need for a centralized organization like Meta to function as the middleman, yet dapp development companies continue to present user agreements and policies.
Why do artists require dapps?
Developers and creators who are optimistic about the future of Web3 argue that we have a chance to use dapp technology wisely and learn from some of the errors we made with Web2 platforms, including data breaches and centralized profit-sharing models that steal money and royalties from the creators themselves.
Dapps will open up more earning potential and greater transparency for artists and creators who typically get the short end of the money stick on established platforms if Web3 functions the way early adopters want it to.
Consider Spotify as an example. It’s one of the Web2 streaming platforms that pays out artists the fastest. Every year, Spotify releases its revenue information for the artists who contribute. Only 16,500 musicians made more than $50,000 in streaming revenue on Spotify last year. Barely enough to support the middle class in the United States. Only 1,040 artists exceeded the $1 million mark.
Not all of the problems with Web2’s paradigm can be attributed to Spotify. Any type of traditional publication and/or streaming platform has to answer to major players in that industry. Traditional revenue models have traditionally operated in this manner. According to the service provider, Spotify, the record business made $4 billion from streaming alone last year.
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