Blockchain Content Tracking Service for Musical Composition Rights
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
It is challenging to determine the origin, ownership, and rights information of musical compositions when they are used in various scenarios, such as advertisements or movies, especially if they have been modified, leading to difficulties in licensing and royalty payments for composers.
Innovation Solution
A method and system for tracking content items using a content tracking service that receives profile data from digital audio workstations, updates data upon modifications, and facilitates submission to publishers, using blockchain technology to store and manage rights and licensing information.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a composition is modified (e.g., to remove instruments or vocals, change tempo), then the composition can be adapted to different usage scenarios, but it becomes difficult to determine the origin, ownership, and rights information
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by embedding rights metadata and digital fingerprints into the composition before any modifications occur. This ensures that ownership information is preserved at the source level, allowing the composition to be modified without losing rights information. The metadata is embedded in the audio file itself, so it travels with the composition through any transformations.
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces an intermediary layer - a content tracking service with blockchain technology - that mediates between the modified composition and the rights information. This intermediary maintains a separate but linked record of ownership and rights that persists through modifications, allowing the composition to change while the rights information remains intact and traceable through the blockchain ledger.
2Device complexity
If traditional tracking methods are used, then the system is simple, but it is difficult to track modified compositions across different platforms and determine royalty payments
Solution Approach 1:
The content tracking service acts as an intermediary between composers, publishers, and usage platforms. It receives notifications from various platforms about composition usage, verifies rights information through blockchain, and coordinates royalty payments. This intermediary layer increases system complexity but dramatically improves tracking reliability across distributed platforms.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback loops where usage information from platforms is sent back to the tracking service, which then updates the blockchain ledger and triggers royalty calculations. This continuous feedback mechanism ensures that even modified compositions are tracked accurately across different platforms, with usage data flowing back to update the central ledger and trigger appropriate payments.
3Ease of operation
If manual tracking of composition usage is performed, then the process is straightforward for simple cases, but it becomes inefficient and error-prone for tracking across multiple platforms and modifications
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables self-service by allowing composers to register their works and receive automatic tracking of usage across platforms without manual intervention. The blockchain ledger automatically records rights information, and the tracking service automatically receives usage notifications from platforms, updates the ledger, and calculates royalties. This automated self-service approach maintains ease of operation for composers while dramatically improving tracking efficiency across multiple platforms.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods, systems, and media for tracking content items are provided. In some embodiments, the method comprises: receiving, at a server associated with a content tracking service from a digital audio workstation associated with a composer, profile data corresponding to an audio content item created using the digital audio workstation; storing the profile data in connection with an identifier of the audio content item; receiving, at the server from the user device associated with the composer, an indication that the audio content item has been modified using the digital audio workstation; in response to receiving the indication that the audio content item has been modified using the digital audio workstation, updating the stored profile data corresponding to the audio content item; causing a user interface to be presented on the digital audio workstation associated with the composer, wherein the user interface includes at least one selectable input for selecting a publisher to which the audio content item is to be submitted, and wherein the user interface is presented within a website associated with the content tracking service; in response to receiving an input via the user interface, causing a notification to be presented on a computing device associated with the publisher that indicates that the audio content item has been submitted to the publisher and updating the profile data to indicate that the audio content item has been submitted to the publisher, wherein the notification is presented via a user interface presented within the website associated with the content tracking service; receiving, via the user interface presented on the computing device associated with the publisher, a request for information associated with the audio content item; and, in response to receiving the request, causing a subset of information included in the profile data corresponding to the audio content item to be presented within the user interface presented on the computing device associated with the publisher.