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Kurt Wuckert Jr. talked to music producer and engineer E. Smitty about creating a music distribution platform on the BSV blockchain. The two spoke about NFTs, the state of the music industry today, and how blockchain technology can usher in a much-needed revolution in music.
Bitcade at the South Florida Bitcoin Citadel
Wuckert begins by announcing a Bitcade will take place at the South Florida Bitcoin Citadel on February 16 at 6 p.m. Anyone can show up and play BSV-powered video games. There’ll be free food, drinks, and some cool people to hang out with.
Join us on Thursday evening for a blockchain-powered arcade featuring games from @hastearcade.
Food and drink provided.
RSVP: https://t.co/TfJ5x7JiwS pic.twitter.com/o9VX7iSC8i
— Florida Bitcoin Citadel (@Bitcoin_Florida) February 13, 2023
Introducing E. Smitty and his journey into blockchain
E. Smitty is a multi-platinum producer and engineer. He has worked in music for 22 years with some huge records. He began his career on the road, selling about 150,000 records out of the trunk of his car, and went on to find great success utilizing different platforms like MySpace and Twitter.
MikeDaGreatt & E. Smitty are taking Hip-Hop to the “Blockchain” https://t.co/b1yTbupyy0 https://t.co/oqX5uq3lmM
— 24Hip-Hop (@24HipHop__) January 18, 2023
How did he get into blockchain and digital currencies? He says he kept seeing ads for eToro in 2018 and started out by trying to day trade (unsuccessfully). He grew interested in the ledgers underpinning these tokens and began trying them out. After getting into Hbar, XRP, and Algorand, he had an idea to patent technology related to traditional music distribution via tokenization.
Building on the BSV blockchain
Smitty soon realized that few of these tokens are linked to any kind of utility. After getting to know Christen Ager-Hanssen better, he partnered with him and is building his project, Distro Mint, on the BSV blockchain. It’s an NFT minting and music distribution platform combined, giving artists the best of both worlds, allowing them to split royalties, receive instant payments, and more.
Building something very special on $BSV @nChainGlobal MVP Site launches end of this month, will support multi crypto currencies including $HBAR $LCX $XRP $XLM….Excited About Tokenizing The Music Industry!!! pic.twitter.com/zghDfGM7sN
— E. Smitty Tokenizing The Music Industry!!! (@THEREALESMITTY) February 7, 2023
Why BSV? As well as his friendship with Ager-Hanssen, Smitty began to research and realize the technological superiority of BSV, and he fell in love with the attitude of the ecosystem. It’s focused on creating value rather than extracting it, which appeals to him.
Speaking more about his partnership with Christen Ager-Hanssen, Smitty says the platform they’re building will be bigger and better than OpenSea. He acknowledges that right now, OpenSea is the biggest and best NFT platform, but this will be better. They’re aiming to launch phase one at the end of the month, and more phases will occur as new features are built. Smitty already has some famous hip-hop artists, rock stars, and jazz musicians lined up to get involved.
“I found my home in BSV,” Smitty says, emphasizing that he has many projects in mind and will build them one by one.
Questions and answers
Viewers have some questions for Smitty, and Wuckert invites them to ask them at this stage of the podcast.
Q. When you say distribution, do you mean streaming or selling records as NFTs?
Smitty says he means traditional music distribution, including sites that offer streaming as well as selling music via downloads. Through a deal with Orchard Sony, this includes playing music via kiosks in bars and more. Eventually, Smitty wants to take the entire traditional music distribution infrastructure and put it on the blockchain.
Q. What can we do to bring back good music and disrupt the business model?
Wuckert notes that the quality of music has gone downhill in recent times. He also highlights artists who became stars dying penniless because the business model of the industry is slanted in favor of record labels. He wants to know what can be done to remedy both of these things.
Smitty says that it isn’t necessarily the companies screwing the artists but that there are far too many of them. He believes platforms like Spotify should screen artists. NFTs will change this for the better—people will go back to only paying for what they feel is valuable rather than lumping everything together in the subscription model. He also believes that real music is making a comeback, and the quality is improving. He’s an optimist about the future of the music industry.
Q. You both mentioned ‘analog’ music. What does that mean?
Smitty explains that all music is still created and recorded through an analog process. Your voice travels through circuitry, tubes, wires, and into a device. Using a baking analogy, he says you combine and mix it up, and the icing on the cake is the mastering process. On the other hand, digital music is a computer emulation of this process. Smitty uses both, but he prefers analog for tone, depth, and the feel of the music.
Q. What does the process of using Distro Mint look like for an artist?
Smitty explains that the onboarding process will be super simple. You’ll log in with HandCash, add a social media account, and create an artist profile. From there, you can start minting and distributing music instantly. This will require entering a little information and picking a package. There will be different packages for different needs, including indie labels with huge catalogs, individual artists with one album, and more.
Watch: Music & Blockchain
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