All posts by Media Team

Musicon Ambassador Joel “DJ Deadly Buda” Bevacqua addressed the Intellectual Property and Blockchain discussion panel: “Creating Globally Applicable Best Practices in Blockchain Technology in Russia for IP Management: from Patents and Inventions to Books, Paintings, Photos, Music and Films” held at the VI St. Petersburg International Cultural Forum. Below is the video of the address, the text of the speech, displayed slides, and the hand-out text mentioned in the address.

Here is the text from the speech:

“Hello, my name is Joel Bevacqua. Some know me as DJ Deadly Buda. I am the Musician Ambassador for Musicoin. We are honored to be invited to the Cultural Forum and especially by IPChain, which we believe could not only benefit Russia, but might shine as an example worldwide about the possibilities of blockchain and its utilization to aid human creativity.

We sincerely hope that one day, younger people in the audience will look back to this panel as a day that the world took a step in a good direction.

So, what is Musicoin?

Musicoin is a digital currency for the listening and compensation of music. On February 11, 2017, artists could upload their songs to Musicoin.org . When listeners played a song, they paid the artist 1 Musicoin. This payment happened in seconds. 1 Musicoin was worth at the time between 1 and 4 cents in US dollars. The artist could save that Musicoin in hopes it would rise in value, or sell it on and exchange for the currency of his or her choice. This was all achieved with the Musicoin blockchain.

This was a success, but we noticed a problem. As Musicoins rose in value, people played less music. So, we made a change to the Musicoin blockchain which we code-named “U.B.I.” for “Universal Basic Income.”

In this change, the artist still receives 100% of the income, but now 1 play is equivalent to an amount of Musicoin equal to about 2 cents in US dollars.

Also, listening for the public is now free. It is paid for by Musicoin miners. Miners are people with computers that process Musicoin transactions and mint the coins. A part of their mining reward creates the fund for free listening. The miners hope this leads to greater adoption and the Musicoins they retain becoming more valuable.

Through UBI, free listening become the human intelligence of the system and makes many traditional concerns about music piracy irrelevant.

Some might call what we’ve done, “disruptive”, but we feel it is constructive and ultimately an aid to the human imagination. In that spirit, a forthcoming update will allow consent-based location data to be entered in the Musicoin blockchain. This way, an artist might indicate where their payments may go.

If their song is played in Russia, RAO may process some funds, if played in Canada, SOCAN could process certain payments. Theoretically, public domain works could pay its citizen in near real-time.

The possibilities are many and are being realized now. Mobile and software players are expected soon, and even dedicated hardware players are expected within the next year.

I am having a fact sheet about Musicoin passed out. Please contact me after the panel if you are interested in interfacing with the Musicoin blockchain and I will help facilitate it.”

Below is the text from the hand-out mentioned in the speech.

Important Facts:

February 11, 2017, Musicoin becomes the first blockchain-enabled streaming music system in which artists can upload music, the global public can listen, and when they do, the artists are paid in seconds.

You can listen to streaming music at http://musicoin.org . The rights-holder is rewarded with Musicoin.

Musicoin has over 19,000 registered users. 1,500+ are musicians who have uploaded over 7000 tracks.

The price of a Musicoin has gone as high as 4.6 cents USD each. Musicoin’s exchange symbol is: MUSIC.

How it Works:

Every time a song is played the copyright holder is paid an amount of Musicoin equivalent to about $0.02 USD. This amount can fluctuate based on market demand and can be raised or lowered to compete with other online streaming services. The copyright holder receives Musicoin seconds after a listener presses “play” anywhere in the Musicoin system. Once the copyright holder receives the Musicoin, he, she, or it can elect to split the payment with others if needed.

Musicoins are created by people all over the world with personal computers. The process is called “mining.” The computers validate and process Musicoin transactions and are rewarded with Musicoins. 15% of Musicoins mined are allocated to fund the playing of music by the public. Musicians, miners and the public can sell their Musicoin on exchanges for the currency of their choice or use them to transact with one another.

Future Plans:

Easy purchase of Musicoins for the public (a cryptocurrency exchange will no longer be necessary).

Consent-based location data will be available from the Musicoin blockchain.

Mobile apps will be available soon. Embedded hardware platform expected late 2018.

FAQ

What kind of blockchain is Musicoin? Musicoin is its own blockchain, based on Ethereum code. By using its own blockchain, Musicoin can better scale with the increasing demands of music consumption.

How would my blockchain system communicate with Musicoin? Like Ethereum, ERC-20 tokens can be utilized to easily communicate with other blockchains.

Announcements, Articles, Deadly Buda

Russia’s IPChain to work with Musicoin?

November 20, 2017 Media Team 1 Comment

November 18, 2017, St. Petersburg, Russia,

This year’s VI Saint Petersburg International Cultural Forum might hold a surprise for the future, an intellectual property blockchain, Musicoin, operating with a national market. This possibility was raised at the culmination of the business panel, “Creating Globally Applicable Best Practices in Blockchain Technology in Russia for IP Management: From Patents and Inventions to Books, Paintings, Photos, Music and Films.”

The hour-long panel was held by IPChain (the National Coordination Center for Processing Transactions with Rights and Objects of Intellectual Property), whose ambitious task is the formation of a national blockchain-based network of Russian intellectual property objects, their associated rights, transaction records, and the facilitation of such transactions.

“The creation of a decentralized IPChain network is a necessary and indispensable stage in the development of the national intellectual property sphere,” said Andrey Krichevsky, president of IPChain. “However, when speaking about practical steps, it is important to remember that, despite the seminal nature of today’s steps to reform the sphere, we must constantly be on the move. After all, the trend of the current day – blockchain – will be replaced by newer and newer technologies and solutions. Our task is to monitor the strategic vector of global development, to foresee and anticipate technological shifts. ”

Musicoin Ambassador Joel Bevacqua addresses the St. Petersburg International Cultural Forum

In that context, panelists who contributed their solutions and viewpoints were: The Unified State System for Accounting for Research, Development and Technological Works of Civil Purpose (the state service is already one of the key components of the IPChain infrastructure), The National Register of Intellectual Property, which participates in a project initiated by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation to create a system for storing and comparing three-dimensional models, and FormMax, a business to business solution for delivering background music,

The participants also included a number of services that could potentially use the IPChain infrastructure such as IP EXCHANGE (IPEX), an online platform that ensures the regular functioning of the organized market of intellectual property, artists societies worldwide, and the world’s first music streaming blockchain service, Musicoin.

Panelists from left, Eric Baptiste (SOCAN), Andrey Krichevsky (IPChain), Sergey Matveyev (Director of the Department of Science and Technologies of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation)

Though intellectual property forums tend to be sedate, this panel had its share of barely suppressed fireworks. Ivan Zasurskiy, Head of the Department of New Media and Communication Theory, Journalism Faculty of Moscow State University, referred to lawyers in the field as leeches, attorney Pavel Katkov wondered aloud if blockchain smart contracts might relegate lawyers to a secondary role in intellectual property management, and Joel Bevacqua, the ambassador for the Musicoin blockchain pointed out to the younger members of the audience that the panel they were witnessing might one day be a watershed moment in their lives.

The Russian Federation’s IPChain ended the panel with another sign that Russia intends to be a world leader in blockchain technology, as official signing agreements on strategic cooperation took place. IPChain and the largest company in the market of licensed electronic books in Russia, LitRes, signed an agreement on cooperation and interaction, and then IPChain and BankPrav.ru service – “AyBi” LLC, signed an agreement on establishing partnership relations and developing long-term mutually beneficial cooperation for the registration and monetization of intellectual property and increasing the transparency of intellectual property transactions for all market participants.

Joel Bevacqua, Musicoin Ambassador (and The Hard Data Editor) arrives at the VI St. Petersburg International Cultural Forum's IP & Blockchain Panel — Joel Bevacqua, Musicoin Ambassador (and The Hard Data Editor) arrives at the VI St. Petersburg International Cultural Forum’s IP & Blockchain Panel

At the very end came the surprise, as IPChain’s head Andrey Krichevsky, announced IPChain’s intention to open discussions with SOCAN and Musicoin on possible cooperation pacts. Musicoin’s ambassador, Joel Bevacqua, was seen giving a “thumbs up” to the audience. How this plays out, the world will have to see, but the announcement could signify another significant step for music fans and artists not just in Russia, but the world.

Announcements, Articles

The Hard Data & Musicoin Content Program

September 25, 2017 Media Team 1 Comment

Following the success of The Hard Data & Musicoin Pilot Program, both entities have decided to extend the content creation aspect of the Pilot Program until at least January 31, 2018. What that means is, between now and January 31st 2018, writers, editors, photographers, artists, proofreaders and other content related jobs will be receiving Musicoin for their contributions to The Hard Data website and magazine.

In August of 2017, the Pilot Program of which this initiative is based on doubled the readership of The Hard Data, and Musicoin tripled its value in US dollars. Creative types unfamiliar with cryptocurrency were introduced to the ecosystem, and readers of The Hard Data were treated to an expanded palette of content related to their favorite music genre: hard electronic dance music.

Because the price of Musicoin tripled (though now the value has pulled back a bit) over the course of the pilot program, content rewards will be half the amount of Musicoin received previously. We hope that by the end of January 2018 Musicoins will rise again in value, and contributors can see their efforts rewarded even more so should the price jump be significant.

Payment Schedule

The Hard Data will be paying the following rates for content produced on a work-for-hire basis until January 31, 2018, no matter how high or low the price of Musicoin is compared to the US Dollar.

Online Content

1. Article Writing = 250 MC
A 500 word (or more) article about some subject pertinent to hard electronic dance music, such as interviews, party reviews or previews, editorials, music reviews.

1b. NEW!!! DJ Top 10 = 100 MC
A list of your 10 favorite tracks of the month, starting with #10 going down to #1. Each track must have a link to its purchase link on either musicoin.org, hardtunes.com, iTunes, Amazon (in that order of preference). If no purchase link is available, insert the download, Youtube, or streaming link. If a track has a good video, it would be good to insert that as well.

2. Photography, artwork, images = 5 MC per image.
In the case of photographers, it is expected that they will be uploading multiple images to The Hard Data’s Facebook photo page. So, if 10 photos are uploaded, that would equal 50 MC. However, we expect about 50 images per event. For 50 images (or more) they would receive 250 MC (please note we are capping the payment for albums at 250 MC to prevent people from uploading mass irrelevant photos). Each time a writer or editor uses one of their photos in an article, however, the photographer or artist would receive an additional 5 MC (only until January 31, 2018, though).

Writers or content creators that insert their own, legally compliant fair-use or copyright cleared photos will also receive 5 MC per photo. Please note, never use a photo on http://theharddata.com unless it is one of our photographers, or is copyright cleared.

3. Article editing/proofreading = 50 MC
The editor confirms that the article is formatted correctly, hyperlinks work, and spelling and grammar errors are non-existent. For a 500 word or more article, or Top 10, the reward is 50 MC.

4. Article sharing = 250 MC
Meaning: Sharing an individual article published on http://theharddata.com. Shares must be relevant in their venue. We currently define a payable “share” as one or a combination of the following:

a. 30 shares on Facebook (such as groups, event pages, or pages you manage)
b. an Instagram photo (or several) with a total of 30 different hashtags
c. several Twitter tweets with a total of 30 different hashtags
d. 10 Forum posts with a link to the article. You should be an active member of the forums you post to.
e. 30 relevant Steemit.com comments with links to the article.
f. 30 links in Reddit Subgroups.
g. If there are other venues you would like to promote on, please tell us about it and we will try to accommodate and come to an agreement with you on proper compensation. For example, we don’t have much penetration on Pinterest or Snapchat right now, so we are open to proposals in those and other social media venues.

So, an example of a “combination share” would be: a person shared an article to 15 different Facebook groups, made an Instagram post with 10 hashtags, and made 10 Twitter tweets each with 2 hashtags. This would qualify for 250 MC, just as a straight 30 Facebook shares would.

5. Share checking = 50 MC
The share checker makes sure that the person about to receive a sharing reward made good links and wasn’t spammy.

Content Schedule

For the months of September 2017-January 2018, The Hard Data aims to publish and share an average of 20 different content items (articles, top 10s, photo albums) per month. If you would like to be a contributor for The Hard Data, please get in touch with us and tell us what you want to contribute, and when you plan to do it. Though we have a solid stable of writers and photographers, the increased content schedule is opening more content slots that will need filled.

Requirements

1. You must post the article or photo album yourself, after your register for an account on http://theharddata.com or we give you access to one of our social media pages. We use WordPress as a platform, if you are unfamiliar with it, we will teach you how to use it.
2. You must have a musicoin.org account, so that we may send you MC. If you don’t have one already, signup here:

https://musicoin.org/accept/bd71b3b7
3. That you follow our general guidelines and agree to them on sign-up.

http://www.theharddata.com/contributor-signup/

Articles, Deadly Buda, Events, Interviews

Deadly Buda Pre-HE Interview

September 8, 2017 Media Team

It’s kind of weird to interview yourself. But, since my job was to interview as many Hard Electronic artists as possible, and a day went by without one, I figured I should fill the gap, as I’m playing the L.A. show. We basically made a list of stock questions for the artist to answer how they wanted. So, I figured this would be easy. Lo and behold, the strangest thing was that I surprised myself with answers to the questions I wrote! So, if you’ve got a few minutes, let’s hang out…

Where are you from? How does your geographic location influence your music?

A Deadly Buda graphic from 1994, Pittsburgh PA.

I was born in Pittsburgh, PA. There, like most places in the civilized world, the population is force-fed garbage music repeatedly, brainwashing them and compromising their lives. It was there that I decided to fight against the insipid audio enslavers, be they man or otherwise. Eventually forced out of the city, I slowly made my way across the USA and have lived in Los Angeles County for the last 17 years, where I continue to wage my guerrilla campaigns to varying degrees of success.

What’s the story behind your DJ Name?

The original story is that “Buda” was my graffiti tag name, taken from a high school social studies report. I added “Deadly” with my first rave DJ gig in 1991. I wanted my DJ name to sound like a kung-fu movie name, like my DJ heroes growing up, Grandfaster Flash, mainly. But as time went on the meaning changed various times. I read years ago about certain Buddha’s whose job it was too destroy egos in order to set people free from the identity others have forced upon them. I like that idea, so that’s what my name means, now.

Who or what events in your life are responsible for you being the artist you are today?

My neighbor, Phil Schoemer, who first taught me how to DJ, was the biggest influence. I still remember things he taught me today, and still struggle to do them. DJ Controlled Weirdness, who introduced me to so much music in the early 90s and we threw raves together as Hear 2 Go, Christoph Fringeli from Praxis Records after that. I’ve always listened to everything Lenny Dee has to say, because he is more experienced and forward thinking than anyone in the dance music industry, period, and today when I get to work with Rob Gee on videos and stuff, helps me keep my sanity in a world gone mad.

Deadly Buda will be appearing at Hard Electronic September 9, 2017

What are you trying to convey with your music? What are you trying to communicate? What are you giving to the crowd that listens to you?

Though I try to make my sound dimension-bending and otherworldly, at the core I guess I am just trying to communicate that they aren’t alone… that we see really see these things and enjoy things together. I feel what they feel, too. Ultimately, life is more psychedelic than any drug you will ever take. So, I think when I play “crazy” hardcore I am just really describing life as it is, without a filter, and I want to just geek out with my friends about it and what we’re doing.

What moment do you cherish the most so far in your career as a DJ?

Lenny Dee's Trax from the Darkside album art by Deadly Buda — Lenny Dee’s Trax from the Darkside album art by Deadly Buda

There are some big ones for sure, Even Further ’95, and of course Even Further ’96. Both were some of my greatest sets for big crowds, and of course legendary parties. But the first one that always comes to my mind when asked is Catastrophic New Years in 92-93, in Washington DC. It was my first ever out-of-town gig, and Catastrophic was one of the biggest, if not the biggest rave crew on the East Coast at the time. My friend Dario Kenning gave them a tape and the next thing you know I’m playing ‘til midnight for the biggest, most illegal party I’d ever seen or maybe will ever see in the USA. They were diplomat’s kids, the Baez brothers, and they literally were pulling electricity right off the telephone poles into the warehouse and all the cops were obviously paid off. Ravers surrounded by Secret Service, it was unreal. I was already playing hard at the time, and I’ll never forget when I asked Mike Battaglia (now known as Mike Bee) what I should play, because I thought I might be too hard for them. He laughed and said, “just play hardcore!” and raised his fist and laughed. So I did and it went through the roof!

But for cherishing, I’ll always cherish the first raves I did in Pittsburgh with Controlled Weirdness: Psychotronic Slackrave, the Beehive parties, and after he moved, the Turbo-Zen and Millennium parties, which are stories for another day.

What specifically are you planning to give to the audience at Hard Electronic?

Original Deadly Buda style with new and improved ingredients. Since it’s Hard Electronic, I am going out-of-my-way to break the mainstream rules, really my old style. So, starting at 133 BPM and in a half hour, crank it up to 200+ BPM. I’m going to start banging some new Dave Delta tracks, and end up with some Mr. Madness at the end. Make sure to get there by 10:00 PM though, because that’s when I start. There are so many great DJs playing that if you blink you’ll miss one of us!

What is something you really want to tell the public that we might not have asked about?

The world today is dangerous, and meant to be confusing and overwhelming. It’s easy to get upset and impatient with everything going on. Just when you think you know the answers, another contradictory layer to the madness is revealed and frustrates. In today’s world we cannot rely only on logic or emotion, but must hone our intuition to navigate through the madness. Mistakes will be made by us and others, but if you proceed knowing you are good, and look for and amplify the good in others, be they friend or foe, we can navigate around the dangers and feel immediate satisfaction in our actions. I have to remind myself of this, so maybe others need to hear it too.

Links

Deadly Buda’s Musicoin Profile

DeadlyBuda.com

Deadly Buda Wikipedia

Facebook – Twitter – Instagram

Articles, Events, Interviews

Delta 9 aka Dave Delta pre-HE Interview

September 6, 2017 Media Team

It’s about time Delta 9 “graces” the pages of The Hard Data again! You would think that he or his alter-ego “Dave-Delta” would get play here all the time, being that he’s an old school vet still pumping out dope tunes. Well, this error has been corrected and now you get to read the words of wild from the Windy City’s #1 devil of hardcore! Without further delay…