Tag Archives: The Hard Data

Recently, The HARD DATA just got a new sponsor, Musicoin. Musicoin is a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin aimed at music producers. Essentially, producers make a profile and upload their tracks to musicoin.org. When listeners play the track, the producer receives 1 Musicoin. Payouts are instant, and the uploader can split the profits between several collaborators if they wish. Though the system is still in beta, it is functional and pays out. Musicoins fluctuate in value but are currently around $00.01-00.02 USD. So, it’s like getting paid 2-4 times compared to Spotify for each play of your track or tracks.

Deadly Buda recently wrote an article for the LA Weekly about music crypto-currencys and blockchains. He mentions Musicoin in the article. The article can give you a good background on the importance of music-focused blockchain systems, and how Musicoin is actually ahead-of-the-curve compared to the other music-focused projects underway.

http://www.laweekly.com/music/blockchain-to-the-rescue-how-bitcoin-technology-could-save-streaming-music-revenue-8383424

The Hard Data wants to get as many of our friends and associates uploading their music to the platform as we can, as it could be really beneficial to us all. If certain things play out right, Musicoin could help eliminate a lot of roadblocks between the artist and a living wage.

So far, Deadly Buda, CAP, Mindcontroller, Lostboy, The Gabber Cowboy, How Hard, D3tour, and Nikolai from Audio Science have already joined up.

Here is the sign-up: https://musicoin.org/accept/bd71b3b7

Do not upload mixes or anything with content you do not own, though. Music blockchains are permanent records of transactions. The same system that helps you get paid quickly, can also easily identify dodgy content. So, only upload your original work that you have the copyright authority to upload.

We have been investigating various cryptocurrencies and how they might interact with the electronic music world for a few years and thought Musicoin would be a good candidate. They are interested in serving new producers as well as the established music industry.

Impressed with the strides Musicoin had quickly made, we sought out their sponsorship and came to terms regarding a pilot program where the magazine would pay our contributors such as writers, photographers, artists, etc. in Musicoin in the hopes of getting the cryptocurrency used outside of just music listening. This is critical for the currency to succeed. You can read more about that program here: http://www.theharddata.com/2017/07/28/the-hard-data-musicoin-pilot-program/ . If you want to get involved in any way with this initiative also, let us know. Depending on how things play out, this could be big news. Hit us up if you have any questions!

Also if you want to check out some of the music uploaded so far, Deadly Buda and Cap have some tracks up already. Play the heck out of them!

Deadly Buda’s Musicoin Page

Cap’s Musicoin Page

Once again, here is the sign-up for Musicoin:

https://musicoin.org/accept/bd71b3b7

Make sure to alert us that you signed up by following our profile on Musicoin and leaving a comment on our info track. Click Here For That. Once we see you did we’ll send you a little Musicoin surprise! 🙂

Announcements, Articles

The Musicoin Alliance

August 2, 2017 DJ Deadly Buda

The Musicoin Project announces the Musicoin Alliance.

The primary goal of the Musicoin Alliance (also known as the $MUSIC Alliance) is to push forward decentralized technology for the music industry regardless of platform. The seven strategic partners include The Hard Data magazine, producer & audio engineer Hank Kalleen, The Polish Ambassador’s Jumpsuit Records, San Francisco’s Knock Knock Recording Studio, mobile music app maker MiQ, direct license music distributor Noisehive, & decentralized music platform OPUS Foundation, with more to come.

The Hard Data – America’s leading online and print magazine dedicated to hard electronic dance music, now uses Musicoin for contributor payments and accepts Musicoin for its printed magazine subscriptions. “Musicon has the potential to create a music ecosystem that producers have only dreamed of, and if realized, might trigger a new, worldwide, creative Renaissance,” said Joel Bevacqua, The Hard Data’s editor and head writer.

Hank Kalleen Audio Production – Gold record producing audio engineer based in Hollywood, California. Hank has worked with Paul Oakenfold, Ceelo, Eve, The Knocks, Miguel, Frenship, and more. Hank now takes Musicoin for music production services and said “This project is doing something brand new and different for the music industry. I’m excited to start taking Musicoin for production services to see where this rabbit hole goes.”

Knock Knock Recording Studio – An analog 24 track to 2” tape studio in San Francisco, California, specializing in hip-hop and smooth analog sounds is now open for booking recording time with Musicoin. “Now with the ability to use what you’ve earned on Musicoin to record a brand new record, it changes the game. Musicoin now closes the loop on what we see as a new Musicoin economy. We’re glad to be a part of that,” said Ari Sandoval, Knock Knock Audio Engineer.

Jumpsuit Records – Record label and music curation project of The Polish Ambassador and his cohort of scientists, spirit animals and vibe consultants, is releasing their entire 450 song catalog on Musicoin. Jumpsuit aims to offer a steady supply of nutritious auditory vitamins in digital music format. “What Musicoin is doing is very cool. Jumpsuit Records plans on uploading a track a day, so we can wrap our minds around how it all works.” said The Polish Ambassador, Jumpsuit Records.

Noisehive – An independent, worldwide music distributor out of Melbourne, Australia offering premium digital distribution to all major platforms including Amazon Music, Apple Music, Beatport, Deezer, Google Play, iTunes, Pandora, Spotify, and Tidal. Noisehive will add Musicoin as a standard release channel for independent artists doing direct licensing. “Noisehive is very interested to work together to help with the growth of Musicoin, and bring our roster of independent artists to play,” said Ashley Gay, Founder at Noisehive.

MiQ – will leverage the Musicoin library and offer free plays in a new mobile streaming app. “Musicoin and its creator Isaac Mao have truly brought something valuable to the world. Thanks to blockchain and cryptocurrency technology we have arrived at the new Internet age – now any form of content shared on the Internet can be recognized as having a tangible monetary value; while intrinsically connecting everyone in that social network. MiQ’s highly dedicated and international team sees joining with Musicoin as a great opportunity to play a contributing role in shaping the next generation of music Apps.” Said Johnny Quattro, Founder CEO of MiQ Group.

OPUS Foundation – The streaming music platform being built on Ethereum & IPFS has grand plans for a completely decentralized music streaming service. Musicoin will work with OPUS to test lower transaction costs and different scaling methods than Ethereum can offer. “There are still some things to overcome before going mainstream, including scaling gas costs associated with millions of track purchases per day on Ethereum. We’re open to every possibility of potential for partnership with Musicoin to help solve these issues.” said Mateusz Mach, COO at OPUS Foundation.

Musicoin Alliance strengthens the long-term effort to build a worldwide Musicoin economy. Musicoin has grown a community of thousands of musicians, fans, and miners with the music streaming platform at Musicoin.org. The Musicoin Alliance builds even more avenues for them to connect and share.

Musicoin (MUSIC) is a smart cryptocurrency & music licensing platform built upon the Musicoin blockchain. Artists, industry associates, and music listeners worldwide are encouraged to visit Musicoin’s official website at www.musicoin.org

For all media, interview and other inquiries, please contact:

Dylan Tarre, Chief Evangelist, Musicoin Project
E: press@musicoin.org

Announcements, Articles, Deadly Buda

The Hard Data and Musicoin Pilot Program

July 28, 2017 DJ Deadly Buda

The Hard Data readers may have recently noticed the addition of banners and price trackers for “Musicoin – The World’s first smart cryptocurrency for music” on theharddata.com. Recently, The Hard Data and the Musicoin Foundation agreed to conduct an experiment to see how Musicoin might interact with The Hard Data’s readers and contributors, in essence: to see how its cryptocurrency would be used by real people, in a real market. Most cryptocurrencies are pure speculation at this point, but Musicoin has the distinction of being the first operating blockchain platform for music streaming. Think of it as Spotify combined with Bitcoin.

At the heart of the Musicoin system, each time someone plays a track on its platform the artist receives (almost instantly), 1 Musicoin, which he or she can split with other people that contributed to the track’s production. As of my writing of this article, 1 Musicoin or “MC” is worth about $00.02. Artists can opt to hold on to the Musicoin, or sell it on a cryptocurrency exchange should they want to sell the MC in exchange for US Dollars.

For the Musicoin system to work, it is thought that perhaps MC should be used for other purposes in the music world, such as event tickets, t-shirts, and other goods and services. So, a plan was drawn up where The Hard Data would catalyze this agenda item by trading MC to its work-for-hire contractors such as writers, photographers, social media experts and artists for their services. As online contributors to websites are often paid nothing at all, it is thought that the MC contributors receive would at least be some compensation for their efforts.

A schedule of tasks and compensation was then drawn up for a pilot program that will be in-effect until August 31, 2017.

Tasks and Compensation

Online (http://www.theharddata.com) :

Writing an at-least 500 word online article = 500 MC compensation

Sharing an article at least 30 different times (for example linking to the article in Facebook Groups, forums and other online gather places) = 500 MC compensation

Photographs (published) = 10 MC each compensation (most photographers upload a lot of photos)

Editorial overview of web article = 100 MC compensation

Share Checker = 100 MC compensation (this person would coordinate shares and check that the Share Reward links were valid).

Web coding/development = 1000 MC per hour

Print (The HARD DATA magazine):

Written Pages = 500 MC per page (or roughly 500 words)

Artwork or Photo (full page) = 500 MC per page

Content Photos/Artwork = 500 MC per page (half and quarter sizes are divided by that amount, so a half page photo is worth 250 MC for example).

Magazine Layout = 5000 MC

Editing Magazine = 100 MC per written page.

Proofing = 100 MC per written page.

Using Musicoin

So after a contributor receives Musicoin for what they did, what do they do with it? Here are the options:

Hold onto it, hoping that it will become more valuable. Musicoins have traded for as high as $00.041. So, a 500 word article written and shared would be worth $41.00 at that exchange rate. Today, 1 MC is worth about $00.02, so the same article traded or shared is worth approximately $20 if the MC was exchanged for US Dollars.
Should the contributor want to exchange their MC for US Dollars, the following process is currently necessary.
The contributor sells their MC in exchange for Bitcoin on either Bittrex.com or Cryptopia.co.nz.
The Bitcoin is then traded for US Dollars on Coinbase.com which will deposit the USD into your Paypal or bank account.

There will be small fees associated with each transaction, but if your Paypal account is connected to your Coinbase account, you can receive US Dollars instantly.

Use the MC to buy things or trade with friends and associates. For example, The Hard Data offers subscriptions and T-shirts in exchange for Musicoin. Soon other goods and service providers will too.
Simple use it for listening to music, tipping artists, or sending to your friends to enjoy the Musicoin platform.

Sign-up

In order to take part in The Hard Data-Musicoin Pilot Program, you first need to sign-up to Musicoin. Use this link: https://musicoin.org/accept/bd71b3b7
Send an email to writers@theharddata.com and tell me what you want to do for the magazine, i.e. Writing, Vidoe/Audio stories/interviews, Photography, Art, Editing, Layout, Web development, Social Media Sharing, and or checking.

Those are the basics. For transferring Musicoin to US Dollars, you will need to do the following.

Download and install the Musicoin Wallet: https://musicoin.org/wallet.html
Sign-up for an account on Bittrex or Cryptopia. https://bittrex.com/ or https://www.cryptopia.co.nz/
Sign-up for an account on Coinbase. https://www.coinbase.com/

Conclusion

We hope that you find this pilot program intriguing and an opportunity to take a more active part, and to gain some compensation, from something that you are truly interested in. The Hard Data is honored that the Musicoin Foundation believed in it and its readers to undertake this musical journey.

Announcements, Articles, Interviews, Issue PDF, Rave Comics

Download The Hard Data Issue 9!

July 24, 2017 DJ Deadly Buda

Download your free copy of The Hard Data issue 9 featuring Minus Militia, Angerfist, The Hard Data DJ Team and Deadly Buda Comix part 2! Click the link below.

Download Issue 9 of The HARD DATA!