Decentralized Music Platform with Automated Royalty Payments via Smart Contracts

Sector: Tertiary sector · Industry: Publishing · Organisation: Audius (aktiv); Ujo Music/ConsenSys und Spotify/Mediachain (historisch) · Maturity level: Concept

The distribution of royalties in the music industry is opaque due to globally asynchronous rights metadata management. Ujo Music uses the Ethereum blockchain and smart contracts to enable direct sales and automatic payouts for musicians. The project was founded alongside ConsenSys and includes Joseph Lubin, co-creator of the Ethereum blockchain, as a team member.

Documentation status

Project status: Concept
Evidence: Evidence high
Editorial review: Ufuk Avci, 15 April 2026

Description

Ujo Music was developed in 2016 in Brooklyn by ConsenSys as a blockchain-based music platform for automatic licence billing. The historical starting point: in October 2015, artist Imogen Heap released the song Tiny Human on the Ethereum blockchain — the world’s first officially blockchain-licensed music piece.

Ujo solved a fundamental problem in the music industry: who holds which rights to a music piece, and how revenues are shared. Today, this information is spread across inconsistent registries; labels and publishers take 50-80% of revenues; artists wait months for statements. Ujo’s approach: artists register music pieces with a complete rights graph (who holds what share of composition, performance, mastering) as a smart contract on Ethereum; every stream, download or sample licence triggers a micro-payment that is immediately distributed according to the rights graph. This eliminates: (1) labels as cash flow intermediaries, (2) publishing collecting societies, (3) quarterly billing cycles. Technical.ly Brooklyn reported extensively on Ujo in 2016. Ujo was later discontinued; the concept lived on in Audius (7 million users, Solana blockchain, 90% artist share) — a direct successor to this vision.

Perspectives

B2B — organisations perspective

Music publishers and collecting societies can build blockchain-based licence registries that automatically and in real time distribute revenues according to stored rights splits — less administration, fewer disputes.

B2C — consumers perspective

Fans can buy music directly from artists and be confident that their payments are distributed transparently and fairly. The direct connection between artists and fans is strengthened without the need for traditional intermediaries.

Employees perspective

Rights management staff need to become familiar with blockchain technology and adapt their working methods. At the same time, they can focus on more strategic tasks as repetitive billing activities are automated.

Benefits

General

Smart contracts automate royalty distribution and greatly reduce manual billing processes.
Blockchain transparency builds trust among all parties and reduces disputes over payments.
Intermediaries are eliminated, allowing musicians to achieve higher margins.

B2B — organisations

Companies can significantly reduce their administrative costs for rights management while improving compliance.

B2C — consumers

Fans benefit from more direct relationships with artists and the certainty that their payments are fairly distributed.

Employees

Staff are relieved from repetitive billing tasks and can focus on more strategic and creative activities.

Challenges

General

Acceptance by the traditional music industry is a major challenge, as established business models are threatened.
User-friendliness for non-technical users must be improved to achieve mass adoption.

B2B — organisations

Companies must invest in new technology expertise and integrate existing systems with blockchain solutions.

Employees

Staff require training in blockchain technology and must adapt to new digital workflows.

Technology foundation

The system is based on the public Ethereum blockchain, which is suitable for complex royalty distribution rules due to its smart contract capabilities. Ethereum enables transparent storage of copyright information and automatic payments without intermediaries.

Implementation examples

Ujo Music Blockchain Platform for Music Rights Management

The traditional music industry suffers from opaque and slow royalty payments due to asynchronous rights metadata management. Ujo Music aimed to solve this structural problem through blockchain technology and give musicians more direct control over their works.

Ujo Music developed an Ethereum-based platform for automated royalty distribution in the music industry.

Ujo Music was developed alongside ConsenSys as a decentralized music platform using smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain. The project was supported by Joseph Lubin, co-creator of the Ethereum blockchain, as a team member. The platform addresses the problem of opaque rights metadata management, which occurs globally and asynchronously, leading to inefficient royalty payments.

The system solves the challenge of global asynchrony in rights metadata and makes royalty distributions transparent and traceable. At the same time, intermediaries are eliminated and automatic payments enabled.

Decentralized Music Platform with Automated Royalty Payments via Smart Contracts

Documentation status

Description

Perspectives

B2B — organisations perspective

B2C — consumers perspective

Employees perspective

Benefits

General

B2B — organisations

B2C — consumers

Employees

Challenges

General

B2B — organisations

Employees

Technology foundation

Implementation examples

Ujo Music Blockchain Platform for Music Rights Management

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Sources