Discontinuity, challenge and constant changes are probably the most central concepts when it comes to the complexity of the numerous datasets resulting from the continuous process of globalization. For this reason, software-based solutions are increasingly in demand, which - during digitization - analyze and prepare processes in a concise manner and meet the numerous challenges of increasing interdependencies in an innovative way. Lately, the concept of the block chain has been on everyone's lips. What lies behind this concept can be summed up as technological innovation - first in the financial services sector. After all, the much-discussed crypto-currency Bitcoin is also based on blockchain technology, whereby Bitcoin, smart contracts and Blockchain are closely and universally related to each other.

The challenge of licensing and rights chaos. Blockchain in the music business

Thanks to its high development and flexibility, this technology can now also be applied to other business areas other than the financial services sector. As a consequence, the media is increasingly discussing the advantages of blockchain technology for the music industry. For example, the Canadian startup PeerTracks are based on block chain technology. Founder Cédrick Cobban and his team will be the first to use the software to clear up the royalty and licensing turmoil in general. Thanks to Blockchain, the complex legal interrelationships that are probably attached to every piece of music (different kinds-of-use, publishers, labels, authors, producers, lyricists etc.) will be broken down, processed more quickly and easily and payments will be made more transparently. But even for the music fan himself, the use of the Blockchain software only offers advantages: For example, the price chaos for the desired concert tickets ends. With Smart Contracts, concert tickets can be individually tailored and controlled for the buyer. By means of the Bockchain it is possible to make ticket sales transparent and make them comprehensible for the fan in real time.

Transparent, clear, decentralized

In this way, the software adapts to the current high demands that the music industry also has to meet. Not only the numerous people / artists who are legally involved in a song, but also the - meanwhile versatile - possibilities of consuming music, create an enormous complexity in the valorization/utilization and transaction process. From interactive consumption of music streaming, to concert visits, to digital merchandise, up to the acquisition of digital sheet music - the range of reproduction and consumption possibilities now seems to be inexhaustible. At the same time, this wide-ranging collection of very small data sets is virtually impossible to manipulate.

Up to now, some of these valorization/utilization possibilities sometimes remained aside, because it was too complicated to pay the numerous rights owners of a song. This particularly affected the publication of sheet music. The elaborate clarification of rights and accounting often made the notation profitable only for great hits. Here, however, a change is to be expected thanks to the blockchain technology. The technology plays its advantage in complex situations, as all data records and transactions can be transparently registered in the blockchain history and tracked permanently. Sheet Music by Soundnotation are well prepared for the blockchain technology by MusicXML encoding. Initial applications are already being tested.