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 Take the annual Unchained survey!  Hey all, the Unchained survey is out now, and we'd so appreciate it if you could give us your thoughts on how Unchained is doing and what we could do better. Plus, we've got some questions for you about Laura's upcoming book launch and the articles that she's already starting to write! Two lucky survey respondents will receive a BTC candle, which is scented with "satoshiwood, musk musk, tulip bulbs and finite minerals."    Head to surveymonkey.com/r/unchained2021 to fill out the survey today!    Follow Laura on Medium!  Hey everyone, some news: I've begun writing news and features again. I’m now a Medium Partner, one of a group of writers I have long admired, such as Susan Orlean, Cory Doctorow, James Surowiecki and Will Leitch, among others. You can already check out my first post, which is on my career trajectory and why I still love covering crypto six years in. To find all my writing on Medium, please follow me at Medium.com/@laurashin.  Thank you to our sponsors! Digital Asset Research: https://www.digitalassetresearch.com/ Ledger: https://www.ledger.com/ Crypto.com: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/unconfirmedcardearnfeb2021     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.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices