Audius on artists, money-making and industry control
- Artist-Centric Platform: Audius is a decentralized music streaming service focused on giving artists control over distribution and fan reach, with a growing emphasis on monetization.
- Monetization Focus: Audius has prioritized monetization features in the past year, enabling artists to earn significant revenue directly from their fan base.
- Balancing Communities: Audius must balance the growth of its artist, fan, and node operator communities to ensure the platform's health and scalability.
- Artist & Developer Growth: Audius has seen rapid growth in its artist and developer communities, expanding beyond its initial electronic music base to include genres like Latin American music.
- Free vs. Paid Content: As monetization becomes more prominent, the availability of free content has decreased, with artists focusing on paid access.
- Free-Market Monetization: Artists on Audius have control over pricing, with some successfully charging significant amounts for access to their music.
- Beyond NFT Hype: Audius intentionally avoided the NFT hype cycle, focusing instead on the core principles of decentralization and fan engagement. They are not an NFT platform.
- Long-Term Vision: Audius aims to avoid the "ephemerality of platforms" by building a sustainable community and ecosystem, empowering users and avoiding centralized control.
- Industry Perception: The music industry's perception of Audius has evolved, with growing interest and engagement, although there's still work to be done.