How Crypto Streaming Service Audius Hit Six Million Monthly Active Users - Ep.270

Audius, a blockchain native music streaming platform, hit six million monthly active users in August and announced a partnership with TikTok. Roneil Rumburg, co-founder and CEO of Audius, talks about how Audius works, AUDIO tokenomics, the give and take of decentralization, and more. Show highlights:
what problems Audius is solving for creators
how artists are utilizing crypto to connect with fans
how the crypto components of Audius fit together
what three utilities AUDIO, the native token of Audius, offers holders
why Audius requires over $500K in AUDIO tokens to run a node
why AUDIO’s inflation rate is higher than other popular tokens like Ethereum or Bitcoin
which portions of Audius are centralized versus decentralized
where the majority of Audius’s listens come from (hint: it’s not the app)
how Audius has created a “password” system to make blockchain technology easier to use for non-crypto natives
why Audius uses both Solana and Ethereum
how big-name artists like Diplo found their way onto Audius
how Audius makes it easier to upload music to TikTok
what’s next for Audius
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Episode Links
 
Roneil Rumburg
Twitter: https://twitter.com/roneilr 
 
Audius
Website: https://audius.co/ 
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AudiusProject 
Whitepaper: https://whitepaper.audius.co/AudiusWhitepaper.pdf 
Discord: https://discord.com/channels/557662127305785361/806017242734395413 
 
What is Audius?
Decrypt: https://decrypt.co/resources/what-is-audius-the-decentralized-music-sharing-and-streaming-service

Messari: https://messari.io/asset/audius/profile

Coindesk: https://www.coindesk.com/business/2020/11/11/audius-has-big-numbers-by-crypto-standards-but-can-it-take-on-soundcloud/ 
 
TikTok + Audius Coverage
Audius: https://twitter.com/AudiusProject/status/1427299274325323779 
Rolling Stone: https://www.rollingstone.com/pro/news/tiktok-sounds-streaming-crypto-blockchain-nfts-audius-1211699/

 
General Coverage
6M monthly users
https://twitter.com/AudiusProject/status/1433248161443684356

Moving to Solana (Oct 2020):
https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2020/10/29/audius-the-decentralized-spotify-is-moving-part-of-its-service-to-solana-blockchain/

5M monthly users (Aug 5):

https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2021/08/05/blockchain-based-music-streaming-service-audius-up-to-5m-monthly-users/ 

Copyright nightmare (The Verge 2019)

https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/9/20905384/audius-blockchain-music-streaming-service-copyright-infringement-piracy 

NFTs (April 2021)
https://decrypt.co/65808/crypto-streaming-music-service-audius-nfts

Token Drop (Oct 2020):

https://medium.com/audius/welcome-audio-to-mainnet-409009bc130c 
https://decrypt.co/46390/audius-distributes-crypto-rac-deadmau5-listeners

Youtube + Audius project

https://youtubetoaudius.com/ 

Music Racer:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/893030/Music_Racer/ 

Raises
https://musically.com/2020/10/26/decentralised-streaming-service-audius-raises-another-1-25m/
https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/08/audius/

https://musically.com/2020/08/03/blockchain-music-service-audius-raises-3-1m-funding-round/ 

Node requirements:

https://blog.audius.co/posts/a-primer-on-audio-staking#:~:text=All%20node%20operators%20are%20required,cost%20slightly%20more%20to%20operate. 


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