Our Journey to OurSong
By Terence Leong
OurSong is the newest offering from Taiwan-based media technology company KKBOX Group, who is responsible for the world’s first legal on-demand music streaming platform, KKBOX, back in the early aughts. In recent years, we have pondered deeply about the digital music “problems”. Has digital streaming devalued music? Why don’t people have an affinity to collecting music like before? How do we create room for music nostalgia in a digital world? The list of questions go on. However, as an innovation business rooted in a deep love for music culture, we remain extremely committed to making the Internet a better place for music artists and businesses.
Two years ago, we began exploring ways to ease pain points felt by music industry through the development of new and emerging technologies. In conjunction with Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture, we initiated the Muzeum Protocol, a public domain blockchain-based open protocol for creative communities. Led by indie rock impresario/technologist, Pochang Wu, the team developed a fundamental infrastructure for creative industries to foster the acceleration of collaboration and innovation through the use of distributed ledger technology (DLT).
During our research, one of the deepest takeaways was a simple question: What is the unit price of music in digital spaces?
Over the last five decades, we have witnessed the evolution of recorded music move from analog to digital spaces. Whether it was vinyl, cassettes or CDs, we purchased music primarily for two reasons: 1. Listening 2. Collection. By the turn of the century, we had shifted into the Digital Age and whether it was an mp3 or digital streaming, their primary purpose became that of purely listening. However, with the advent of social networks, we compensated tangibility for increased social engagement and not to mention, this new 24/7 “freeconomy” of content at our fingertips.
Moreover, the sale of vinyl has increased dramatically in over the last decade. Possibly fueled by retail brands like Urban Outfitters making vinyl reissues and low cost turntables available to consumers, as well as millennials taste for offline experiences, the vinyl industry saw a 17 times increase in units moved in 2018 compared to a mere 0.9m units sold in 2006. This hints towards a bigger opportunity in innovating the music collection experiences.
One of the benefits of digital is its ability to integrate social engagement, a distinct character of today’s digital world. So as we explored the various definitions of social engagement and what it means to music fans, we concluded that there is plenty of room in creating a product of high collectible value and social engagement. Using new technologies like DLT and other contemporary technological features of today’s internet world, we created OurSong, a new music service and community-marketplace dedicated to music artists and businesses, allowing them to create limited edition “tangible” digital collectibles we call Song Shares.
A Song Share is in its essence a digital token. Its supply is finite and scarce and its ownership is unique to its owner and cannot be tempered with. Its ownership is also transferrable and can be traded on OurSong’s marketplace. This is what allows it to be a collectible.
Also, because of its unique design, OurSong’s Song Share also serves a music fan token, allowing fans who purchase Song Shares to have access to exclusive content or perks. These resemble the hallmarks of a “fan club”. While OurSong is not a fan club application, it can be used as a Customer Relations Management (CRM) tool by music artists and brands, looking to build closer ties with fans, including knowing who and where they are and being able to maintain a direct line to these dear fans.
Has this happened before in history? Of course, history repeats itself more than most of us expect. In fact, the autographed Beatles Fan Club card shown below is worth $3480 today.
Although we have been on a journey that feels like forever, we have just begun. As online and offline music experiences converge, we believe the Song Share is a new and innovative way to integrate not just offline to online but even online to online experiences, allowing you to build a fan hub around any music theme and aggregate not just the fans who love you but also interact with others like yourself.
High velocity economies of future must allow some degree of decentralization. The massive proliferation of information in the last 25 years has changed socio-economic behavior in content spaces. However, we hold onto a belief that the stakeholders of music industries deserve their own musiconomy. This is something that we at OurSong are committed to: Each musician’s right to the pursuit of more transparent yet profitable models to empower them in these changing times.
