The value of music.

The commercial value of any creative work is most represented by the expected future revenue which will be generated by the work. This does not necessarily correlate with artistic merit. Commercial value and artistic merit are not the same.

The commercial value generated by music in royalties for the artist, often values the investment means of distribution more than the work itself. This has led to artists feeling significantly undervalued by the proportion of streaming revenues they receive.

Respect for creative work dates to ancient Greece; sheet music was the first to be protected by copyright. But it was not until moveable type presses were created that the law recognised that the “right of reproduction” should belong to the creator. The “copy… right.” The commercial value of copyright therefore derives from assurance that the creator can control and recover fees for each reproduction.

Arguably for music this reached its zenith with vinyl, which could not be cheaply copied, as it required industrial machinery. It was domestic recording by analogue tape, and then digital which diluted the ability to maintain royalties for each reproduction.

By embedding the music in an NFT that trend is reversed. Each digital file can now be tied to a wallet (a piece of software) or a machine. It cannot be copied but it can be transferred. The smart contract enables that transfer to be recorded on the blockchain and the respective contributors rewarded in tokens or proportions of tokens for each.

Token||Traxx has the potential to reverse 25 years of dilution of copyright caused by the proliferation of cheap digital reproduction equipment and rapid dispersal of copies, with recognised rights to share in revenue.

The global industry is now valued at $32.5bn