Musicoin: Create Freely, Reward Creators

What is Musicoin

Friends, imagine you are a talented musician who has created a beautiful song. You want more people to hear it and to receive fair compensation, rather than having your earnings siphoned off by middlemen. At the same time, as a listener, you hope to enjoy music for free and without ads, knowing that every song you play directly supports your favorite artists.

This is exactly the goal of the Musicoin (MUSIC) project. It’s like a “decentralized music platform” tailor-made for musicians. You can think of it as a music-sharing community powered by blockchain technology, where musicians can publish their works directly, listeners can stream for free, and musicians get paid instantly via smart contracts (self-executing digital agreements), with no traditional record labels or streaming platforms taking the lion’s share.

The core scenario is very straightforward: musicians upload music, listeners play for free, and each play automatically triggers a small Musicoin payment to the musician. It’s like building a direct bridge between musicians and listeners, removing all unnecessary “toll booths.”

Project Vision and Value Proposition

Musicoin’s vision is to fundamentally change how the music industry operates, making it fairer and more transparent. It aims to address some long-standing pain points in the current music industry:

• Meager income for musicians: In the traditional model, musicians often receive only a tiny fraction of the revenue from their works, with most of it taken by record labels, distributors, and streaming platforms. Musicoin’s goal is for musicians to receive 100% of streaming revenue.
• Lack of transparency: Data on play counts and revenue distribution is often opaque, making it hard for musicians to know the true value their works generate. Blockchain’s features make all transactions and play records on Musicoin publicly verifiable.
• Piracy issues: While Musicoin doesn’t directly solve piracy, by providing a free, convenient, and artist-supporting legal listening channel, it offers listeners a better alternative.

Musicoin’s value proposition lies in its unique “free listening, fair payment” model. It doesn’t charge listeners a monthly fee, has no ads, and ensures musicians earn more than on traditional platforms. It’s like building a “musical utopia” where creation and appreciation return to their purest forms.

Technical Features

Musicoin’s achievements are made possible by its underlying blockchain technology. You can think of blockchain as a massive, publicly transparent digital ledger, where records, once written, cannot be tampered with.

• Decentralized platform: Musicoin runs on a decentralized peer-to-peer network. This means it’s not controlled by a single company like Spotify or Apple Music, but maintained collectively by participants worldwide, with no single point of failure and greater resistance to censorship.
• Smart contracts: This is one of Musicoin’s core technologies. Smart contracts are “automated protocols” written on the blockchain. When a song is played, the smart contract automatically executes, paying a preset amount of Musicoin tokens to the musician. The whole process is instant, transparent, and requires no manual intervention.
• Consensus mechanism: Initially, Musicoin used the “Proof of Work (PoW)” mechanism, similar to Bitcoin, where “mining” secures the network and issues new tokens. However, there is information that Musicoin plans to migrate to the Skale Ethereum Layer 2 network in Q3 2021 and adopt “Proof of Stake (PoS).” This is like upgrading the network’s maintenance method from “competing on computing power” to “competing on token holdings,” which usually improves efficiency and reduces energy consumption.
• Decentralized storage: To store music files, Musicoin utilizes decentralized storage technologies like the “InterPlanetary File System (IPFS).” This is like distributing music files across computers worldwide, rather than storing them on a single server, making content harder to delete or censor.
• Open source: The entire Musicoin system is open source, meaning anyone can view its code and help improve it, increasing transparency and community participation.

Tokenomics

The core digital asset in the Musicoin project is its token, abbreviated as MUSIC.

• Token symbol: MUSIC
• Issuance mechanism: Initially generated through “mining” (Proof of Work).
• Total supply and circulation: Musicoin’s total supply is 2 billion tokens. As of November 2025, its circulating supply is about 1.68 billion tokens.
• Token utility:
  • Pay-per-Play (PPP): This is the main use of the MUSIC token. Every time a listener plays a song, a smart contract automatically pays a certain amount of MUSIC tokens to the musician.
  • Tipping: Listeners can directly tip their favorite musicians with MUSIC tokens to show support.
  • Future expansion: The project also mentions possible future support for paid downloads and merchandise purchases.
• Token distribution: In Musicoin’s “Universal Basic Income (UBI)” model, when a new block is mined, a portion of MUSIC tokens is allocated to the UBI pool, with miners receiving 79.6% and musicians 15.9%. This incentive mechanism aims to ensure network security and ongoing income for musicians.

Note that the token’s value fluctuates with market supply and demand, similar to stocks or gold, and carries risk.

Team, Governance, and Funding

• Core members: Musicoin was founded by Isaac Mao, a software architect and entrepreneur. The team also includes Ben Gyles (Lead Mobile Developer) and River Yan (Systems Engineer).
• Team characteristics: Musicoin is described as a non-profit platform, indicating its original intent is more about pursuing fairness in the music industry than pure commercial profit.
• Governance mechanism: While specific details are unclear in available information, it is mentioned that after a “reboot,” the project will become “community-driven.” This means more community members may participate in decision-making and development in the future.
• Funding: Specific details about the project’s funding sources and operational runway are not disclosed in public materials.

Roadmap

Since its launch, Musicoin has reached several key milestones:

• February 11, 2017: Musicoin project officially launched.
• October 27, 2017: Musicoin Whitepaper V2.0 released.
• January 30, 2019: Musicoin mobile app officially released, available on Google Play and App Store.
• Q3 2021 (planned): Information indicates Musicoin plans to migrate to the Skale Ethereum Layer 2 network and switch from Proof of Work (PoW) to Proof of Stake (PoS).
• Recent: The project mentions an ongoing “reboot” and plans to become a community-driven project.

For future plans, such as new feature development and ecosystem expansion, refer to official channels for the latest updates.

Common Risk Reminders

All blockchain projects carry certain risks, and Musicoin is no exception. When learning about this project, pay attention to the following:

• Technical and security risks:
  • Blockchain security: While blockchain itself is designed to be secure, smart contract code may have vulnerabilities that could lead to asset loss.
  • Network attacks: Decentralized networks may also face various cyber attacks, affecting system stability.
• Economic risks:
  • Token price volatility: The price of MUSIC tokens is affected by market supply and demand, project development, macroeconomics, and other factors, and may fluctuate sharply.
  • Sustainability: Whether the free listening and direct payment model for musicians is economically sustainable in the long term requires ongoing observation.
• Compliance and operational risks:
  • Regulatory uncertainty: Global regulatory policies for cryptocurrencies and blockchain projects are still evolving, and future policy changes may impact the project.
  • User adoption: The project’s success largely depends on attracting enough musicians and listeners to use the platform.
  • Project activity: Some information indicates the project is planning a “reboot,” and some GitHub repositories have not been updated recently, which may suggest low activity at certain stages. Follow its subsequent development closely.

Remember, the above risk reminders are not investment advice, but are intended to help you better understand the challenges the project may face.

Verification Checklist

If you’re interested in the Musicoin project, you can further verify and research through the following:

• Block explorer: Use Musicoin’s block explorer to view all on-chain transactions and smart contract activity, verifying its transparency.
• GitHub activity: Check Musicoin’s code repositories on GitHub (such as mobile app, desktop wallet, Go implementation, website, etc.) to understand code update frequency and community contributions.
• Official website and community: Visit Musicoin’s official website (musicoin.org) and its social media (Facebook, Twitter, Slack) for the latest information and community discussions.

Project Summary

In summary, Musicoin is an idealistic blockchain project that seeks to use blockchain and smart contract technology to transform the music industry, enabling musicians to be paid more fairly and listeners to enjoy music more freely. Through its “free listening, pay-per-play” model and decentralized features, it challenges the centralized model and opaque revenue distribution of traditional music streaming platforms.

However, as a blockchain project, Musicoin faces challenges in technology development, market adoption, economic model sustainability, and regulatory environment. Whether it can truly realize its grand vision will require time and collective effort from the community.

Please note, all information above is compiled from public sources and does not constitute investment advice. Always conduct your own thorough research (Do Your Own Research, DYOR) before making any decisions.