Introduction
The blockchain has interestingly been adopted in the form of social media where most art work find its platform. It is no longer a surprise that most artists are discovered through the social media rather than the traditional media. Printed newspapers, television and radio are slowly phasing out in terms of influence.
“ABC members in 23 countries around the world sold 123.5 million newspapers per month in 2011, almost 2 million fewer than they sold in 2010, a decline of 1.6 percent. Every country included in the stats reported a decline in average circulation except Belgium, Brazil, Malaysia and the U.S. (and Malaysia’s rise was 0.08 percent — slightly more than 3,000 copies),” reported The Media Briefing.
Source
The world is changing and the pace is quite dramatic, before one could even pause and think for a moment how Facebook, Youtube and Instagram has invaded the art community there is a new boy in town and his name is the Blockchain.
Doing Away with Publishers
We are so used to reading the printed media in the past. I was hooked to the Archies Comic in the 90s. There was this craze about MAD magazine in the 80s. Our newspapers have a daily one page spread on comics and cartoons and on weekends, the publishers see it fit to increase the spread to two pages.
However there is one weakness to the entire system. It is the traditional method of engaging with advertisers and getting the subscribers in. Then there is the collection of money in the hand of publishers. The content creators are the ones that is doing the job and driving in the traffic but they are the lowest in the chain of distribution when it comes to revenue.
Whilst we cannot continue to say that the advancement in technology is killing the industry but rather, the technology is giving a new breath of live into the industry.
Currently What We Have
Currently through the blockchain we can have a trustless system that returns the authors a profit for their work. A platform to showcase their piece and be paid. There is no need to repose any trust or confidence is one of the hallmark of the blockchain technology. The technology cannot be manipulated because it runs on a set perimeters that is made known to its users.
So, there is now an elimination of subscribers and advertisers. That makes content creation a more determined and focussed effort without unnecessary static and that is a good return for the readers because it prevents wastage of resources, the resource taken to find revenue.
What the Future Holds
This is how I see the reach of blockchain in the future. By utilising this system the reach could be divided into the following categories.
- Education
- Marketing
- Merchandising
- Entertainment
- Self Employment
- Intellectual Property
The most critical part of the introduction of blockchain which we can now see through Steemit is the return of autonomy to the artist. The artist has full control of his work, there is no surrender of his Intellectual Property rights and he remains the full owner of his work.
There is no stifling of his creative works and there is much lesser censorship from both the investor and/or the publisher. There is a direct link and communication between the audiences and the content provider. There is liberation and free will that augur well for artists.
The new breed of artist would be taught of direct engagement with their peers and audiences. There will be less emphasis on the hierarchical system of agents, publishers, drafting of contractual agreements between licensing and IP rights, marketing and revenue generation.
What Can Reasonably be Expected
We can expect that the blockchain will solve all woes when it comes to procedures and submission of work. It will give a wider platform for a free exchange of view and opportunities. It will open up a new market for artwork to be appreciated to a wider audience and there is better disposal of contents. With lesser wastage on middle man and bureaucratic costs, more efficiency leads to lesser wastage and this returns better value to the artist.
When there is more value, there is more incentive to spur the industry. Like we are all familiar, every leap in human civilisation starts from music and art renaissance.
