Decentralized music platform Audius is deepening its commitment to community ownership with an ambitious rewards program to distribute approximately $3 million in crypto rewards to its users.
The platform differentiates itself in the streaming landscape by allowing artists to set their own terms and control pricing, with fans able to support creators through direct payments. Audius has attracted Skrillex, deadmau5, Zedd, REZZ, Disclosure and many more influential electronic artists alongside partnerships with major performing rights organizations like ASCAP, BMI and SESAC.
Now in its fourth week, Audius’ program will ultimately dispense 30 million of its native token, $AUDIO, to its most engaged artists and fans over the coming months and years.
“Audius is a music ecosystem that empowers and enfranchises its community to control its own destiny,” said Audius co-founder and CEO Roneil Rumburg. “Because our members all share in ownership of the platform, they also all share in the success of the platform. The response from artists and fans to these rewards has been incredible so far and we are looking forward to rolling out even more ways for them to participate financially in the Audius ecosystem.”
Charlie Gross
Audius launched the initiative last month by virtue of a 2-million $AUDIO airdrop directly to artists, celebrating surpassing 250 million total streams. However, the streaming service has structured its rewards program to benefit both creators and listeners, with different weeks focusing on artists, fans or both groups.
This week, Audius significantly boosted incentives for its Weekly Trending Competition, increasing rewards by 10x. The top five Trending Tracks and top five Trending Underground Tracks will now each earn 1,000 $AUDIO tokens every Friday.
c/o Audius
The program has received positive feedback from independent stakeholders within the Audius ecosystem. Thorwald van den Akker, Co-founder of bitbird, praised Audius for “giving back to the community” and “building something directly for artists,” while Josh Yamini of Good Society credited the platform with helping his independent label grow from its earliest days.
“As someone who’s been a part of the Audius community since $AUDIO launched – I’m really stoked about a more consistent way for artists (and fans) to earn tokens for putting their music onchain,” added Coop Records founder Cooper Turley.
Details on all of Audius’ rewards can be found on the company’s official blog.
Follow Audius:
X: x.com/audius
Instagram: instagram.com/audius
TikTok: tiktok.com/@audius
Facebook: facebook.com/audiusproject
Content shared from edm.com.