Krakow is a fascinating city that’s complex and surprising; it’s riddled with dark secrets, medieval legends and Polish myths aplenty. Vodka bars, Cafes, and brilliant buskers adorn the street corners making for one serious tourist attraction in Krakow.
As you walk down into the busy streets of Krakow city center, the largest medieval town square of any European city, you will find the charm of street performers “buskers” mostly musicians hoping to get the attention of passing by tourist, that someone who cared enough to listen, lend a helping hand in the form of gratuities.
They continue to perform their art for hours in the harsh chili weather of Krakow (currently -10 C) just to get enough money to survive for another day.
Street performance dates back to antiquity but why in a technologically advanced age, Musicians still have to find old ways to survive?
An art commonly used by people to communicate thoughts and feelings to one another for centuries which researchers suggest can help relieve negative emotions like stress, anxiety, and depression yet still good musicians have to rely on street performance to make a living.
As per the latest report released by IFPI, Total music industry revenues for the year 2017 were still just 68.4% of the market’s peak in the year 1999.
Global music market had endured 15 years of significant revenue decline. Why?
Many will blame the technology which gave rise to piracy but rising competition has put the equal share to this decline, diluted the very essence of creativity and free thinking.
“Competition has been shown to be useful up to a certain point and no further”
How often do we hear top producers and artists say how often they never expected a certain song to become a hit? And how they didn’t set out to “make a hit?”, but rather to write a really good song that meant something to them?
"Art is only perceived well if it was created from the heart"
An art once commonly used by people to communicate thoughts and feelings to one another has now turned to feed greedy corporate mouths, the artist has to bend to the tune of studio producers | sponsors, and are not able to freely give what they love.
Many fall victim to this and forget their passion or fall because they could not find the right match to the taste of studio producers.
Does the industry need a wake-up call?
As I see these struggling artist, I wish I could offer more. Being in the blockchain space and watching carefully for good 3 years, wonder can blockchain be of any help here.
One particular company Muzika is building a blockchain based music platform which will be driven by artists and their fans who are rewarded for the level of dedication and devotion put into music creation and consumption.
“The fruit of passion can only be tasted if free-will is the companion”
- With Muzika, the artist can have the freedom to do what they do best and not be dictated by sponsors or studio producers.
Unlike the traditional approach, the artist in Muzika platform (which will have over 2 Million + users) can reach out to the community for sponsorship cutting down dependency of funding from company sponsors.
Additionally, Muzika platform will provide production support which will incorporate record mastering online and automation. The learning algorithm will eliminate the hours of manual, human-powered work making it possible for an artist to make music without having to sign with a record label.
Production process: First, a song gets recorded, then mixed. Finally, it's mastered as the final step in the recording process. Mastering involves finely adjusting the audio and preparing the audio for a respective format.
- Getting yourself established.
Muzika platform will offer community programs and events such as auditions, contests, live-streaming events which will help the new artist to get established. Unlike traditional TV shows which are limited to a specific country, an artist through Muzika can reach out to Millions of global music lovers and build their name or following on a global scale.