Roneil Rumberg: Decentralized and Open Source Music Community
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Episode Summary
The number of successful consumer applications in the web 3 space is still few and far between. Against all odds, Audius, which is an open source and decentralized music discovery and community platform was somehow able to strike a chord and gain mainstream adoption. They have racked up 7M monthly listeners and 50,000 artists, including heavy hitters like deadmau5, Nas, Chainsmokers, Steve Aoki and many more. So what exactly is Audius and how were they able to gain so much traction?
Initially, it looks just like any other web 2 music discovery and streaming product, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. When a user creates an account, Audius automatically creates a wallet in the background, enabling them to participate in blockchain activity. When people contribute to the network, such as by curating playlists as a listener, uploading content to the platform as an artist, or running decentralized servers as a node operator, they get rewarded through Audius tokens.
All data on Audius is open source, which means as a developer you can take the music library and build your own unique music application. While there is a music player that Audius has built, that is simply to serve as a reference code for the rest of the community. Third party developers have built unique and creative applications of their own, one example being a car racing game where you need to steer the car to the beat of the music.
Beyond that, listener data is open as well, which means that artists can have unfettered access to their fan base and use it like a CRM. They can create fan clubs, share exclusive streams, but more critically, if a platform like Spotify or Soundcloud goes down or changes their algorithms, artists will still be able to have a direct channel to their listeners and carry their audiences to different platforms and experiences.
Finally, the governance structure of the Audius community is unique and Robust. Audius the startup is just one small piece of the entire ecosystem. There is also an Audius token, which is managed by the Audius Foundation, and stimulates the economic activities and incentives of the ecosystem. Finally, contribution and decision making is all done by the community in a decentralized manner.
With such a unique operating and governance structure, Audius encounters many interesting new circumstances. For example, what does it mean that their music library and listener behavior is so fragmented? What is the role of the CEO of Audius, the startup, when the community is self run and has many different constituent pieces that he does not control?
About the Guest
Roneil Rumburg is co-founder and CEO of Audius, a digital streaming service that connects fans directly with artists and exclusive new music. Audius is fully decentralized, owned and run by a vibrant, open-source community of artists, fans, and developers all around the world. Founded in early 2018, Audius serves millions of users every month, making it one of the largest crypto applications ever built.
Prior to Audius, Roneil most recently co-founded Kleiner Perkins' early-stage seed fund, KPCB Edge. At KP, he was responsible for seed investments into Blockchain and AI companies, including Lightning Labs. Roneil attended Stanford University and previously co-founded a Bitcoin peer to peer payment company called Backslash.
Show Notes
[2:45] Audius’ role in disrupting the music industry
[6:45] Components of Audius platform (listeners, artists, network contributor)
[10:35] What does it mean to be the CRM for artists’ fanbase
[15:00] How artists use Audius vs. other platforms
[19:55] Enabling 3P developers to build new listening clients
[23:05] Key drivers of growth
[26:15] Distributed vs. centralized listening experience
[30:25] Governance structure of Audius network
[33:45] Role of CEO for a decentralized network
[37:45] What it means run a ‘startup’ that has no concept of existing or having an IPO