Blockchain Revolution

Other Elements of the New Music Ecosystem
Basic Copyright Registration
There are two fundamental dimensions to music copyright. The first is the worldwide
right to the underlying composition—the musical notes and the lyrics—in all forms
and languages, and that’s usually held by the composer-lyricist. The music and the
lyrics can be copyrighted separately. The composer-lyricist makes royalties whenever
someone records or performs the song, buys the sheet music, adapts it into another
genre (e.g., elevator Muzak), translates it into a foreign language, or includes the
music in an anthology or textbook. The second is the worldwide right to the sound
recording, a performance captured and preserved in some medium like a digital file or
music video. The recording is usually copyrighted by the performer or band members,
who earn royalties when the recording is played on the radio, television, or the
Internet; synced with TV shows, commercials, or video games; streamed,
downloaded, or purchased in some hard medium such as vinyl, CD, or DVD.
Zoë Keating’s level of autonomy was what motivated Toronto’s industrial rock
band 22Hertz to turn to the blockchain. In Canada, registering copyright for one song
costs fifty loonies, and the certificate contains only the title of the work. The band’s
founder, Ralf Muller, didn’t think that’d be helpful in court, if anyone ever used the
lyrics or melody. So he decided to go the hashing route, by creating a hash of the
whole song using something called an OP_RETURN feature—and encoded it into the
blockchain instead. If anyone ever used his words or music, he could simply

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demonstrate his ownership by pointing to the transaction on the blockchain, doing
another hash of the song, and comparing the second hash with the hash on the
blockchain. They would be identical. “Once you encode a hash in the OP_RETURN
and block upon block get written on top, it is basically impossible to go back and
change anything. This, to me, is incredible.” When asked why the band’s online store
was accepting bitcoin and offering discounts to bitcoin users, Muller responded
emphatically, “I’m not into ‘business as usual.’”
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