Could Blockchain Make Music Royalties Easier for Artists?
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Many musicians, especially those who are still finding their feet, can find that getting their songs heard is only one piece of the puzzle. Proper crediting, licensing and monetization of their recordings are also difficulties that must be managed, especially as the pipeline for music discovery has changed and become much more digital. Their songs might appear on the radio, live when performed by them, but also on streaming services and in other places. Blockchain technology might provide an answer for simplifying this process for musicians.
Everyone knows that blockchain is predominantly used for crypto trading, where users will check the Bitcoin price USD and make speculative trades with digital assets on exchanges like Binance. But blockchain technology has many other potential applications, and the way that music ownership and payments are recorded could well be one of them.
The modern music industry operates at such an incredible scale that having an artist's music correctly attributed to them, and their pay correctly applied, is more important than ever. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) has released a statement that recorded music revenue has reached US$31.7 billion in 2025, with paid subscriptions to music accounting for 52.4% of that revenue. Artists deserve a reasonable remuneration for their work helping this growth, but how can they get it?
The Data Behind Every Song
A single modern music recording can have a complicated collection of rights associated with it. The compositions and sound recordings have separate rights, as do the songwriters, publishers, labels, performers and any other participants, all of whom might have different relationships with the finished recording.
The financial stakes for musical royalties can be substantial. The International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) has reported that collections for creator royalties reached €13.97 billion in 2024, a 6.6% increase year over year. Of that number, digital collections were more than €5 billion for the first time, with music royalties alone accounting for €12.6 billion of the total.
These numbers clearly show that the accuracy of the rights associated with any piece of music is important. If a song gets popular, even a small error in crediting or licensing could create a big problem when a song is played or streamed millions of times.
Blockchain Could Create a Shared Rights Record
Blockchain could help solve some of the complexities associated with this process through the creation of music metadata in a shared record. Rather than a plethora of different organizations holding disconnected databases full of information, blockchain would provide a common record that details exactly when a recording has been created, entered and updated over time.
There has already been a project undertaken by IBM along these lines in 2017. IBM worked with collecting societies ASCAP, SACEM and PRS for Music on a blockchain project that was intended to improve the links between the International Standard Work Codes (ISWCs) and International Standard Recording Codes (ISRCs).
The idea was that a reduction in errors and costs, and an improvement in royalty matching, would be easier with a decentralized database that could track music metadata in real time.
Why Does Streaming Make Accurate Data More Important?
The music industry has gone hard in supporting music streaming, and it has altered the way that most music fans consume music and has increased the amount of digital activity that individual recordings receive.
Every stream that a song gets doesn't normally create a complex payment that must be processed; rather, they generate data that gets fed into systems for licensing and royalty payments. This can become a challenge in data management.
Any recordings that have incorrectly identified contributors, incomplete ownership information, or databases associated with them that have conflicting metadata are likely to see slower or reduced payments heading to the rightful contributors.
Blockchain systems would fix this problem by creating a consistent record.
Smart Contracts Could Automate Certain Payments
Smart contracts are another potential application for blockchain systems in the music payment sector. These programmes would be able to automatically divide up revenue between participating rights holders on a song.
This sort of technology would not determine in any way who owns a song; that information would be established elsewhere with contracts and accurate records. But once the rights are established to the satisfaction of the participants, automated smart contract systems could reduce administrative burden when it came time to divvy up the proceeds.
As music streaming continues to rise, the revenue for creators is becoming increasingly digital, which means that smart contracts would be used in their native habitat. Data from CISAC shows that collections of digital royalties grew by 11.2% in 2024, a greater level of growth than live, broadcast and background income for creators.
A Back-End Technology For a Human Industry
Blockchain is often parsed as a wholly transformative and disruptive technology, but the reality for the music industry is likely to be more sophisticated and subtle.
It is likely that most listeners will never see or interact with any blockchain systems that become incorporated into the music industry. But for artists and other stakeholders in song revenue, having the underlying rights and royalty data function more smoothly could be a real benefit, and one that won't change the way that music is made or distributed, just in the way that they receive payment for their work.
Author: Liam Clarke
Liam is a content writer from Australia. He has been writing content for years and has a flexible style that allows him to write content to suit many topics. When he isn't writing content, he's watching classic films and providing enrichment for his cat.
