From NFT platform to blockchain IP management system

For music creators, licensing and royalty distribution are critical.

However, the traditional music licensing process is cumbersome and opaque, and even prevents creators from receiving profits immediately. Blockchain technology brings a new solution to music licensing. Song Protocol, co-founded by Wu Baicang, the lead singer of the well-known Taiwanese band Echo, is a blockchain IP management system that uses new technologies to improve licensing efficiency and make points. The moisturizing process is more transparent.

You may be more familiar with "OurSong" than the name Song Protocol. Wu Baicang said that as early as 2017, the team began to study how to use blockchain technology to improve music licensing and royalty distribution. However, blockchain technology was still in its infancy at that time. After completing preliminary research, the team hoped to promote blockchain technology into more specific and practical application scenarios.

Therefore, OurSong, which combines music collections and helps artists and fans establish closer interactions, was first born in 2018.

After 7 years, the technology has become more mature. Wu Baicang returned to his original vision and built Song Protocol as the infrastructure for music licensing and royalty management, and OurSong naturally became a platform project in this infrastructure ecosystem. In addition, music distribution platform Soundscape and record company ChynaTown are also ecological participants.

Wu Baicang, co-founder of Song Protocol.

The era of AI co-creation is approaching, and effective authorization mechanisms are more important

The advantages of blockchain are decentralization, non-tamperability and automatic execution of smart contracts. In Song Protocol, creators can register their IP as digital assets through the blockchain, set a variety of authorization conditions, and automatically handle revenue distribution.

The concept of copyright has existed for a long time. Why is it more urgent than ever to strengthen the copyright mechanism now? Wu Baicang explained that the application of AI technology in the music industry has gradually matured. It only took more than two years from the initial experimental nature to now being able to create music works that are comparable to humans. And many musicians have begun to use these AI music generation platforms to create.

However, the training data for many AI models in these platforms comes from a large number of already existing and copyrighted works. In this era of "explosion of the co-creation trend", IP registration, certificate storage, and automated authorization are becoming more and more important.

Is market acceptance a big challenge?

For Song Protocol to become a mature music ecosystem, it must attract a large number of music industry players to join. Wu Baicang mentioned that the biggest challenge at this stage is. Comes from market acceptance. Although blockchain technology can improve the operational efficiency of the music industry, practitioners in the music industry have varying degrees of acceptance of new technologies.

Blockchain and music seem to be two parallel worlds. Those who understand technology may not necessarily understand the music ecology, but musicians may not necessarily understand the advantages of technology. How to combine them and gain market recognition is the key to promoting Song Protocol, and it is also A goal to keep working towards.

Song Protocol’s strategy is to first expand its music distribution and licensing-related businesses, and then apply blockchain technology in actual operations to demonstrate its advantages as a successful case. Wu Baicang said: "We hope that music creators can use our technology 'painlessly'. He does not need to specifically understand the working principles of blockchain, but can deeply feel the convenience and benefits it brings."

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