Beyond the Hype of Blockchain - A Scenario-Based Analysis of the Potential Applications in the Music Industry

While the Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies remain blockchain’s most known applications, the technology has revolutionary potential in various industries. The music sector has experienced a digitalisation shift in recent years with the rise of streaming services. However, problems regarding transparency and payments throughout the value chain still preserve. Three main applications of the blockchain have been found in the literature: Data traceability, micro-transactions and copyright protection. Thanks to interviews with professionals and a scenario-based analysis, we have aimed to find the existing barriers blocking the integration of such applications and the establishment of recommendations. Our findings include the acceptance by the main stakeholders, the scalability and speed of current blockchain technologies, the absence of legal consensus and the lack of standardisation by the technology’s developers. Our recommendations include not to invest in applications involving cryptocurrencies, to build a hybrid blockchain system using a sharding mechanism and of course a large-scale collaboration between stakeholders within the value-chain.