Blockchain and the Music Biz

Jared Bowser was brushing his teeth, about to leave for a concert, when he heard a knock at the front door. The 19-year-old still lived with his parents. His mother, the only other person home, answered the door and walked back to the bathroom. “Her voice was the crying, shaky kind,” Bowser said. “She asked me ‘Jared, why is the FBI at the door?’”

Two agents dressed in black suits with leather bound portfolios sat at the kitchen table and asked about five songs by musician Ryan Adams they said Bowser shared on the internet. The songs had not yet been released, but Bowser had copies thanks to a friend who worked at a magazine and had been given the album pre-release to write a music review. He forwarded them to someone he knew through a Ryan Adams fan blog.

“I’m just answering their questions honestly,” Bower said. “I’m stressing that I didn’t know there was any kind of law against this.”

To find out the fate of young Mr. Bower and discover the ways by which the music industry, led by such companies as eMusic, is utilizing the cryptocurrency public transaction ledger blockchain to streamline and assure that musicians get paid for the tunes they put out there to the public, take a stroll over to the RNRG’s sibling publication Modern Consensus and read CBS investigative reporter Clark Fouraker’s revealing report.