Blockchain rights management with the Open Music Initiative

When a piece of work is created or performed, the digital rights to that piece are oftentimes complex and spread across many different organizations and entities. This makes it difficult for artists to get paid for their work and many large platforms, like Spotify, suffer from lawsuits because they don’t do a good enough job of navigating the labyrinth. How might you build a system to help artists get paid for their work? In partnership with the Berklee College of Music, Harvard Berkman Center, and several industry partners in the Open Music Initiative, we are investigating the design of a blockchain-inspired open and interoperable digital rights management platform.