The Music Industry Is Broken and Coda Is Fixing It

Imagine a world where artists can create music without sacrificing their creative control or financial stability. A world where investors can support their favorite artists and earn a fair return on their investment, all while building out a community-driven music loving ecosystem. 

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This is the vision that Coda is bringing to life, but to understand its impact, we need to delve into the challenges that have long plagued the music industry.

The Struggle for Creative Control and Fair Compensation

For decades, the music industry has been a complex web of intermediaries and elite gatekeepers—record labels, distributors, and publishers—who often take full control and ownership of an artist's rights and a significant chunk (if not all) of an artist's earnings. This traditional system leaves artists with limited control over their work and financial outcomes. To access funding for new projects, artists are frequently forced to trade ownership of their music for upfront advances, a trade-off that can be both creatively stifling and financially precarious.

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On the flipside, financial investment into artists is also restricted to the elite, with investment into music IP rights definitely not for the faint of heart. It's an expensive endeavor, often requiring millions of dollars and accessible only to top tier investors, labels, or large entities. The legal processes involved are labyrinthine, involving multiple rounds of negotiation and iteration that can be both time-consuming and costly, and initially connecting with IP rights owners is equally challenging, usually limited to direct contacts with creative artists and their record labels—a barrier that makes it difficult for new investors and artists to break into the market.

Enter Coda: A New Era for Creative Financing

Coda is revolutionizing how music is monetized and valued by introducing tokenized Intellectual Property. Here’s how it works:

Tokenizing IP Rights for Artists

Artists can now tokenize a portion of their IP rights, creating Royalty Rights Tokens that act as a tokenized record of ownership over certain rights, like mechanical or streaming rights, which keep the creative copyrights with the artist. This innovative approach allows them to access creative funding without sacrificing ownership or creative control. The Coda Manager System ensures a transparent and efficient way to track and manage IP rights ownership, providing clear opportunities for rights holders to benefit from future royalty distributions.

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New opportunities for artists also means new opportunities for investing in music, opening up access so it is no longer the exclusive domain of big companies or wealthy individuals. Anyone, anywhere, can support their favorite artists or creative works and own the rights to share in future revenues. This democratization opens up the creative economy to a broader audience, allowing fans to become stakeholders in the music they love.

Monetizing Rights Without Sacrificing Control

Independent musicians, songwriters, artists, producers, composers, and other music rights owners can now easily gain access to the long term value of their rights by selling a portion of them through Coda. This provides new funding opportunities without the need to give up the all important creative ownership and control—a game-changer for those who want to maintain their artistic vision.

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And, with the complex legal groundwork covered, the previously expensive barriers to entry for artists have all been removed. Opening up a new model that keeps independent artists at the forefront, and putting an end to the need for a traditional record label advance.  

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Coda is Breaking Down Barriers

With legal frameworks in place and an accessible open exchange for IP rights that are distributed amongst multiple owners, there’s no need for millions to get started in IP with Coda. Investments can be as small as a few dollars, there’s no legal fees, and clear transparent ownership records, making IP rights accessible for anyone who wants to participate in the creative economy. 

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Removing the barriers to entry democratizes investment, allowing more people to support the artists they love, creating a liquid exchange where tokens representing the record of ownership over IP rights can be easily be bought and sold on the Coda Exchange, giving everyone the freedom to trade IP rights whenever they choose. This liquidity adds a new layer of flexibility to the music investment landscape.

A New Era for Music

For investors, Coda offers a secure, traceable way to access music rights, enabling them to earn passive income while supporting the growth of artists. By turning fans and supporters into stakeholders, Coda fosters community-driven promotion and discovery, amplifying the reach and success of creative works. This innovative model bridges the gap between creators and investors, addressing industry inequities and paving the way for a more equitable and dynamic creative economy.

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In essence, Coda’s solution is about empowering artists to maintain control over their work, ensuring fair compensation, and making the music industry more accessible and transparent for all involved. It’s a new chapter in the story of music, one where creativity, fairness, and community come together to create a brighter future for everyone in the industry.

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