Blockchain breaking down the doors in electronic music community

Elec­tron­ic music is big busi­ness. Accord­ing to a report by the Inter­na­tion­al Music Sum­mit, in 2021, the elec­tron­ic music sec­tor was val­ued at $6 bil­lion dol­lars and that sec­tor is poised for sig­nif­i­cant fur­ther growth. That $6 bil­lion dol­lar fig­ure marks a 71% increase from the industry’s val­u­a­tion in 2020, which was under­stand­ably much small­er due to the effects of the pan­dem­ic. While rev­enue is down from where it was in 2019, bar­ring fur­ther mas­sive dis­rup­tions, the indus­try is on pace in 2022 to sur­pass its pre-pan­dem­ic heights.

This should be great news for artists and music lovers alike, but there is a caveat. As elec­tron­ic music con­tin­ues to flour­ish, access to fes­ti­vals and con­certs — the heart of the elec­tron­ic music scene — has become increas­ing­ly exclu­sive. The price of con­cert tick­ets is up across the board through­out the entire music indus­try. Ear­li­er this year, a furor was sparked when tick­ets to see Bruce Spring­steen, an artist with a com­mit­ted fol­low­ing among work­ing-class peo­ple, went on sale for astro­nom­i­cal prices. The high prices were blamed on algo­rithms used by tick­et-sell­ing plat­forms, but this wasn’t an iso­lat­ed incident.

Take Tomor­row­land, one of the biggest elec­tron­ic music fes­ti­vals. In 2022, a gen­er­al admis­sion tick­et to the fes­ti­val cost about $280. These tick­ets get sold out very fast, leav­ing only the more expen­sive pack­ages, which can cost sev­er­al thou­sands of dol­lars. And that base price doesn’t take into account trav­el, food and all of the oth­er expens­es that go into attend­ing one of these events. The total cost of going to one of these events can be any­where from $1,500 to $50,000. That is sim­ply not some­thing that the vast major­i­ty of peo­ple can afford.

Restoring the Electronic Music Scene to Its Roots

Elec­tron­ic music fes­ti­vals are about more than just the music. These are events that are sup­posed to bring togeth­er peo­ple from all walks of life in a com­mu­nal set­ting. The way things cur­rent­ly oper­ate, going to these events is becom­ing more of a privilege.

How­ev­er, one blockchain project has decid­ed to do some­thing about this and use its plat­form to bring elec­tron­ic music back to its roots. Klub­coin bills itself as the “1st cryp­tocur­ren­cy for all club­bers, fes­ti­val goers and elec­tron­ic music fans.” The project’s goal is to cre­ate a cur­ren­cy that is accept­ed by every­one in the elec­tron­ic music scene. By using the Klub­coin cur­ren­cy, music fans get rewards that include access to VIP events, meet-and-greets with famous DJs and artists and more.

Klubcoin and the Pary-to-Earn Model

The mod­el of oper­a­tion is called “par­ty-to-earn,” and has been posi­tioned as a means of decen­tral­iz­ing the music and fes­ti­val scene in a sim­i­lar fash­ion to how play-to-earn games have shak­en up the gam­ing indus­try. Klub­coin gives club­bers and fes­ti­val goers the abil­i­ty to earn rewards and gain access to exclu­sive events by doing what they love. Now, fans will not only be able to get into sold-out events for rea­son­able prices, once there, they will also be eli­gi­ble for dis­counts on food and drinks, get cash­back on all their pur­chas­es and have access to par­ties and mee­tups exclu­sive to the Klub­coin com­mu­ni­ty. By intro­duc­ing a means of exchange tai­lored to elec­tron­ic music cre­ators and fans, the project is aim­ing to bring those cre­ators and fans back into focus.

Klub­coin has already met with some suc­cess in its efforts, forg­ing part­ner­ships with some of the biggest music fes­ti­vals and DJs in the world. The project’s ros­ter of part­ners now includes Amne­sia Ibiza, Boot­shaus, Caprices Fes­ti­val, DJ Mag, Pacha Barcelona, Opi­um, Motel Par­ti­c­uli­er and many more. As it pro­gress­es, Klub­coin will be look­ing to inte­grate into even more fes­ti­vals and part­ner with more artists to expand its ecosys­tem and offer more peo­ple alter­na­tives to the cur­rent sta­tus quo.

For music cre­ators, Klub­coin rep­re­sents a unique oppor­tu­ni­ty to expand their audi­ence and con­tribute to a more direct rela­tion­ship between fans and artists. The sus­tained suc­cess of Klub­coin could have a pro­found impact on an indus­try that is becom­ing increas­ing­ly unrec­og­niz­able to its orig­i­nal creators.