Proof of Listenership Protocol
Picture this. The date is April 16, 1964. Angie shows up at her favorite record store in London to buy the first album of her favorite local band, The Rolling Stones. Now the year is 2022 and The Stones are still together and touring. Since she has a small part in their success as one of the band’s earliest supporters, she has been given free limited edition records and merchandise, exclusive access to events and clubs, and has even been given an ownership stake in the band which generates passive income. This direct and symbiotic relationship between the Rolling Stones and their day one fans has been thriving for 58 years and counting.
Why?
The previous scenario did not actually occur for anyone, of course. The Rolling Stones have no way of rewarding their earliest supporters. They have no way of verifying who listened to their first record with any degree of accuracy or respect for privacy. For new artists, this kind of verification is possible if the Proof of Listenership Protocol(POLP) is adopted.
The other methods for achieving this kind of direct relationship with fans are social media and email lists. Proof of Listenership offers distinct value over these other services because it enables direct peer-to-peer transfer of value, is not reliant on third parties, is programmable, is more secure, and is more resistant to censorship.
In addition, there is a beneficial macro byproduct of creating more rewarding experiences for early adopters of musicians: consumers will become more incentivized to seek out new and underground artists in pursuit of growing alongside them. With old music increasingly taking up more share of the music market, incentives to listen to new music are helpful to sustain a society that encourages creativity and values artists.
How?
The Proof of Listenership Protocol is what makes this direct and symbiotic artist-fan relationship possible. It works by providing a website to stream the music/content. Once the user has consumed the minimum necessary amount as deemed by the artist, the user will then be able to sign a message with their Ethereum wallet which proves that the owner of that wallet is a listener. POLP allows the artist to airdrop tokens representing money, tickets, merch redeemability, special access, or any other type of digital goods imaginable instantly and directly to fans in perpetuity.
The use of a crypto wallet enables direct peer-to-peer exchange of digital assets for anyone with an internet connection. This transaction does not require identity verification, making the process more seamless and more accessible. This means a content creator can reward their fans whenever they want with any type of digital asset they can imagine and vice versa.
With a direct wallet-to-wallet connection, much of the important data will be stored on-chain, where trust is put into a decentralized network rather than a corporation, and off-chain data can be stored wherever the content creator chooses to store it. The users own their data and assets.
There is a young musician getting started right now or in the near future who will use POLP to reward their early fans for decades. The early fans of this artist will still be being rewarded financially and experientially in the year 2100 and beyond.
Join the Movement
The first iteration of POLP will be a streaming website for my first solo EP to be released soon. In the meantime, you can stay updated by following me on Twitter here: (link to my profile).