In working our way toward producing a mobile and desktop Resonate app, we could definitely use more help on the development side of things, but: trying to think outside of the box means having to account for a few extra things in the development process. Continue reading
Pink Siifu has been in hibernation mode this year. That hasn’t stopped his creative juices from flowing or his creative output, though. In 2020, the Alabama-born emcee dropped his second full-length album Negro. Continue reading
Following the board appointments and confirmation at our Annual General Meeting, Resonate welcomes Hakanto to the Board of Directors. Hakanto shares his introductory letter, sent to the Board before seating. I’m Hakanto: a singer, pianist, and visual artist in Houston, Texas. In May of 2020, I discovered Resonate while researching co-operative business. I’d been furloughed at the start of the pandemic and, like so many, I was looking for a new way forward out of a bleak situation. Continue reading
Following the Board appointments and confirmation at the Annual General Meeting, Resonate welcomes Melissa Taylor to the Board of Directors. Melissa shares her introductory letter, sent to the Board before seating. “I bring to Resonate 20 years of unique experience, contacts and perspective in the electronic music industry. I have worked in this field since the age of 18 – in public relations, as a freelance journalist, for nightclubs, in artist management, running labels, as an artist and dedicated raver. Continue reading
annual general meeting The Resonate Co-operative will hold its 2020 Annual General Meeting (AGM) online via Zoom on Wednesday, December 30, 2020, 18.00 – 20.00 CET / 9am – 11am PST. The meeting is an opportunity for members to review the co-op’s progress, build community and plot ways forward together. There are important items on the agenda that will require support by a vote of its members for the Co-op to operate successfully. Continue reading
new releases Descriptions written by the artists. New releases from artist members in Australia, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, and New York. Paul Taylor – Cluj Concert | Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom | “Improvised solo piano concert for Transilvania Jazz Festival, at the Hungarian State Opera House & Theatre, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, November 2017. Recorded & produced by Paul Taylor.” Climb Mate – “to the moon and back…” | Goulburn, Australia | “a project formerly known as quarantunes. Continue reading
new releases Descriptions written by the artists. Resonate Co-op welcomes new artist members from Canada, New York, New Jersey, Norway and England. dave sylvester – the space between you & i | England | “the space between you & i is a subdued but sanguine, genre-agnostic exploration of emotional distance via the snapshot of a lived moment, an anxious daydream-turned-story or both blurred into one.” DEADPAN – THREADING BLOODLINES | New Jersey | “An album made as a historical project. Continue reading
new releases Descriptions written by the artists. Resonate Co-op welcomes new artist members from South Korea, Germany, and California. Grief Scene – Bad Times | Berlin, Germany | “Written and recorded in three months in late 2019, Bad Times is an album of songs about lost friendship, climate anxiety, and the ongoing search for artistic relevance in an ever-changing world.” Feral Five – Get A Grip | United Kingdom firedrill – dog house 2 | South Korea Seastone – Galaksija | Oakland, California Thunderpaw – Wabi Sabi 5: Children of the Sun | Washington DC, USA Thunderpaw – Wabi Sabi 6: No Glory in War | Washington DC, USA Thunderpaw – Wabi Sabi 7: Paper Tigers | Washington DC, USA Continue reading
new this week Resonate Co-op has submitted its evidence to the UK Government Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee Inquiry into the Economics of Music Streaming. We had a fantastic, impassioned response from our members, occasional listeners, artists, and the general public everywhere. It was quite a job to capture the great insights you provided, and to convey the strength of feeling. Read the full response here, and take the ongoing survey to add your perspective. Continue reading
descriptions provided by the artists Thunderpaw – Land of Forbidden Knowledge | Washington DC, USA | “A new sonic force to be unleashed, Acid surf, Vibrations are energy, Music is a weapon of love, songs of the soul speaking truth. Songs from the universe, Rock and roll Psychedelia.” Thunderpaw – Aeon Long Death of this Untrodden Austral World | Washington DC, USA Tami Mulcahy – Part Of The Solution | California, USA | “Call to action! Continue reading
new this week Dream Control: An Interview by board member Z with new Resonate member – comedian and musician Zack Fox Community Credentials: An introduction to Resonate’s new Co-operative Privacy and Trust project for digital dignity across communities. Staff Picks November: With Staff Picks, Resonate’s team strives to highlight music from artists across countries and genres. Explore with 50 tracks from new and established members of the co-op. Player Updates Behind-the-scenes updates to Resonate Player, including redesigned Top Favorites. Continue reading
Comedian. Musician. Illustrator. Rebel. The multi-talented and multi-skilled Zack Fox is closing out this spooky, dystopian month of October, 2020 with both a music video for his new song entitled Stick (featuring the legendary Fabo of D4L), and solutions-oriented perspective for his creative peers. Zack recently decided to chop it up with artist and Resonate board member Z about the new tunes, his overall creative process and ambitions, and what exactly it is about the Resonate music streaming co-op that has been, uhh, resonating (sorry, we couldn’t help it). Continue reading
Resonate is creating a Co-operative Privacy and Trust system for digital dignity across communities, working with EU project partners. Artists in every field want to collaborate with each other and with their own community-supporting audiences. But trusted collaboration without face to face interaction is difficult. Many of us let the major corporate social platforms manage the majority of our identity information, even if we prefer to work in trusted ‘peer-to-peer’ circles. Continue reading
descriptions provided by the artists Tess Roby – Beacon | Montreal, Quebec | “The Beacon looms over the English countryside. ‘Throughout my life I have felt the pull to return to it,’ Tess says, ‘I’m beckoned by father’s roots & the landscape of fields leading to the coast.’” KAJÉ – Lotus Eterna | Los Angeles, California | “Lean into life’s uncertainty and your journey of growth with KAJÉ’s new album, Lotus Eterna. Continue reading
descriptions provided by the artists Kangding Ray – 61 Mirrors . Music for SKALAR | Germany | “Reflections on light and sound. This music was composed for SKALAR, an audio-visual kinetic art installation created by Christopher Bauder & Kangding Ray. www.skalar.art” Contemplator – Sonance | Canada | “Further explores progressive influences from all ranges of rock/metal music, with orchestral arrangements. Evokes vivid imagery and inspire untold stories, at times chaotic, powerful, and melodious. Continue reading
descriptions provided by the artists Battery Operated Orchestra (BOO) – Yesterday Tomorrow and You | United Kingdom | “Recorded before and during lockdown, Yesterday Tomorrow and You is a survival handbook for the future in four chapters.” Paul Taylor – Altceva | United Kingdom | “Piano inspired by wanderings in Romania. Steinway piano at Sage Gateshead. ‘Altceva’ = ‘Something Else’” Kat Five – Perfect – Da Dark Outside dub | United Kingdom | “Electronic dub version of Perfect created for The Da Dark Outside at Aerial Festival. Continue reading
descriptions provided by the artists Tkivo – Strange Low | Croatia | “Tkivo (eng. ‘Tissue’) is an electronic band that was formed in 2009 in Zagreb, Croatia by Karlo Vukovic.” Robi Mitch – Our Year | United Kingdom | “Robi’s debut is warm and nostalgic, philosophically exploring the conditions of modern life within the cosiness of lo-fi production and laid back vocals.” Palinke – Pas le même présent | France | “A short and intimate album, which is experimenting with sound and self-expression. Continue reading
This is Z’s introductory letter to the Resonate board, shared before seating, and slightly modified for public viewing; it includes information on some of his background, as well as key insights into why he is lending his experience to our platform. Dear Resonate Team: My name is Z. I’m 26 years old, my bases are in NYC and Tokyo, and I am co-founder and National Coordinator of a revolutionary socialist organization for Black Americans called Black Socialists in America (BSA). Continue reading
In philosophy, anamnesis is the idea that humans possess innate knowledge (perhaps acquired before birth) and that learning consists of rediscovering that knowledge within us. This theme’s idea directly comes from the title of a track by Planet Mu Records’ artist Jlin from her last project called Autobiography (Music from Wayne McGregor’s Autobiography). The electronic / dark / metallic / ambient soundtrack was carefully curated by Timothée Goguely (a french designer who has supported Resonate from the very beginning). Continue reading
In depth feature on streaming, including a nice mention on our efforts to build an ethical service. Continue reading
As the platform adds services and engages more communities, the strategic coordination of the membership’s diverse talents, desires, and perspectives becomes ever more important. We believe cooperative values of horizontality and transparency give Resonate urgent advantages for long-term success in the increasingly stressed environments where our contributors and supporters live. Leadership under these conditions succeeds by fostering healthy connections across diverse experiences, providing tools for navigation, and articulating the cooperative values that give Resonate its unique capacity to build upon and share the social power of music. Continue reading
In depth exploration of the streaming business — all that glitters is not gold. Continue reading
Exploring the of electronic music. Continue reading
A few weeks ago, Berlin saw a pretty intense heatwave that had a peak of 38°C. Like many Berliners, curator Jake attempted to escape the heat by heading to one of the city’s surrounding lakes (in his case Krumme Lanke). Though the heatwave passed, rising temperatures in recent weeks show that Europe won’t be cooling down anytime soon. Jake’s picks are for the hot days. The 10 picks all from Berlin based artist’s will provide a soundtrack to the summer climate. Continue reading
The theme of this week’s picks is flux. Things feel like they are all over the place right now and these songs aim to convey the moods of the current moment. Femi (@Femdimes) is a music lover and basketball obsessive who always has a hot take in the oven. Shitmat – Ace Of Base Babylon Richard Cruz – Belfast Upseak Donny Murakami – Bloody Murda Ani Cordero – Dominas Mis Suenos Continue reading
In our on-going efforts to democratize curation and build an algorithm-free streaming service, we’re announcing a new program for promoting new releases via social media. The plan consists of a few simple steps: follow our ResonateAlerts account on Twitter write a release announcement using one of the suggested formats below we will retweet on Twitter, then use your text on Facebook, Instagram and Linked In Proper formatting is important, as all new releases need the following elements: Continue reading
Hybrid emotions are the theme to this weeks curators picks. Independent Buenos Aires artist Emke (@helagabal_ltd) selects a contrasting mix of ambient-abstract and rhythmic cuts. Spirits – Rakutone** ** Lush (Situated) – RUI HO 03 EONE – DISTRACTED THOUGHTS – Eone Evolution Fluo – Richard Unsaid – City Pop Drop DJ Taye Nxt 2 Me – DJ Orange Julius Sensation – Dasychira Don’t Buy It – Ziúr Interstice – Ekoplekz Continue reading
If you don’t have an existing app for converting WAV to FLAC files, download Audacity. It’s a free, open-source audio app. FLAC is a lossless (no compression) format that provides CD quality (great for downloads!) and is half the size of WAV files, which means faster uploads as well! Continue reading
Drum Workouts, Weightless Grime and Ambient feature in this week’s Top 10 selection from Australian based curator, Andrew. Mall Music Inc. – Go Off! Unashamedly fun and functional Footwork from DJ Paypal, DJ Mastercard, DJ Orange Julius, DJ Boy Dram a, DJ Instant Message.** ** H – Body Boys Grainy, washed out ambient executed perfectly.** ** SUPERGORD – Egor UK Hip Hop at it’s best. Oddball instrumental and the lyrics to match. Continue reading
We recently relaunched our payments process for buying streaming credits. Simply click the “three dot icon” in the top right and then click top-up in the pop-up! Continue reading
London-born, Liverpool-based Rob picks his 10 favorite releases. From Rian Treanor’s off-kilter club cut on Planet Mu to Pep Llopis amorphous ‘Nits De Cristall’. Great Ghost – Telemex Beach Duval Timothy – Whattsapp Rian Treanor – ATAXIA_B2 DJ Rashad – Itz Not Rite Babyfather – Meditation Danyell – Gust of Wind Aaron Corbett – Sea Bumps Falty DL – Eight Eighteen 10 Pep Llopis – Nits De Cristall Ellen Arkbro – Three Continue reading
The recent relaunch of the site and app required us to retire some legacy code, which meant several sections had to be temporarily shut down. One of those sections included the upload tool. Turned out to be a blessing in disguise. A few very interesting things we’ve observed is just how many artists have not documented their metadata properly. Having strong records of composer details is ESSENTIAL for artists to fully capture revenues across streaming services, whether on Resonate or elsewhere. Continue reading
In previous posts we’ve described three distinct stages that Resonate has traversed since the project began. The first, volunteer-based stage was supported by a modest crowd campaign, resulting in the formation of the co-operative, the alpha release of our #stream2own app and enrollment of nearly 5,000 members. The second, transitionary stage was assisted by funding from RChain, allowing many of our previous volunteers to work full-time with pay. Results included a complete rebranding and product design, completion of two-thirds of a new codebase designed to scale to hundreds of thousands of members and nearly doubling of our member base. Continue reading
This is a brand new section devoted strictly to updates for artists and labels. I’m sure many have wondered why we chose to relaunch the brand and app with a few key features (uploads, credits purchases, analytics, etc). The answer is fairly straightforward — we had to make a break with the past and replace some code that was in danger of causing many long-term problems. The first version of Resonate (which should have been called “alpha”) was developed mainly by one volunteer. Continue reading
This release marks a distinct phase shift for Resonate, replacing legacy code that was preventing us from scaling to hundreds of thousands of members, while creating a solid foundation for the months and years ahead. As the community adds members, we’re excited to list in detail new features, improvements and bug fixes. This page will be updated as releases are made and new suggestions added to the list. Short term releases co-op membership (live) #stream2own credits social sharing metadata Mid term releases new song upload tool new account management system integrated artist payouts persona system for managing multiple accounts single log-in for website and app pagination for large catalogs new artist analytics page view improvements album view layout single song layout partner integrations ticketing, gig finders, analytics + more playlisting tools credit sharing (tipping artists, gifts to friends) Long term releases desktop and mobile apps Community suggestions This list includes comments and feedback from the community, but has not been added to the roadmap or release schedule yet. Continue reading
Have solved the main issues with iOS. Unfortunately, while the app now appears on Safari, our current audio formats are not supported. Seems to be changes coming from the browser, as our current streaming format M4A used to perform on Safari with iOS. Short term solution is to switch to using Firefox or Brave which are both free downloads. Safari on mac laptops continues to work, so the problem seems isolated to the iOS mobile version of Safari. Continue reading
Fantastic article from God is in the TV, exploring the questionable business logic of streaming. Continue reading
April 2019 – report on new branding. First story in the press about the relaunch! March 2018 – Reflective Ventures’ investment reported by FACT Mag. NOTE: they reference Resonate receiving $1M USD. Technically we received that value in crypto token, but the actual cash value (due to the collapse of the market) was around $600K. Continue reading
Big release today with rebranding and launch of a new app. Known bugs we’ll be working on the next few days: credits top-up, social sharing, embed code, safari iphone We plan to release a series of improvements in the coming days and weeks and will report back soon as those fixes are up! Continue reading
We think you’ll find Resonate brighter, clearer, easier to use and it’s the start of an exciting new phase for the co-operative. This new design reflects our core philosophy: Resonate is here to enable and nurture culture, not define it. It’s not up to us to decide how scenes and sounds grow, nor is it up to us to decide what’s “good” or what isn’t. Music communities have always formed organically, and we’re here to help that happen within an environment that privileges privacy and agency. Continue reading
Resonate only takes high quality file uploads so that we may provide the best possible audio for streaming and file downloads. We’ve settled on FLAC as the best format for file delivery to Resonate. The advantage to FLAC is that it is a compressed lossless file, so it has the same quality as WAV but is half the size, making it much faster for uploading. Using the free audio app Audacity you can easily export WAV + AIF files into FLAC. Continue reading
We’ve unfortunately gotten out of the habit of updating this support section of the site. Promise to make more of an effort to post notices here as new developments become available. We’ve got a whole series of releases planned for the coming weeks and months. Changes to profile players, genre searching, design and styling revisions… lots coming, so stick around as we hope to make you happy! Continue reading
Exploration of platform cooperatives that arise in opposition of commercial services extracting value from other people’s labour. Continue reading
We had set out the challenges the co-op was facing, and we have been looking at different ideas and options for continuing and developing the work that we are all so passionate about. We have listened carefully to you, our members, and have an announcement to make – the first of several that will come this year. Starting in April Resonate is going open source! Our development team has long managed our code base through an accessible, albeit private repository, and we will be switching to Github to manage developer contributions during the next phase of our evolution. Continue reading
Co-op Congress Sessions Manchester June 22nd Terry Tyldesley, Resonate Chair Tech Open Air Berlin July 3rd Peter Harris, Resonate Founder Resonate members have spoken at numerous events worldwide: Continue reading
While we’ll explore those adversities and solicit your engagement, we’d first like to highlight what has been accomplished to date. Within just six months of receiving funding from the RChain Co-operative, we have been able to achieve the following goals: 66% of brand new tech infrastructure to replace old code built during the volunteer phase. Financial investment and development support of Mycelia’s The Creative Passport which has enabled it to launch in alpha with a limited edition release this month and beta to follow in 2019. Continue reading
We’re really excited about this milestone in our development. Annual General Meetings, or AGMs, are a key component of democratic co-operative governance. We’ll go over our financial statements, discuss board nominations and more. Attendees will have the opportunity to vote on matters including a proposed name change, and what the criteria for Resonate membership should be. Resonate will be using our own version of Loomio (the discussion and decision-making app) to facilitate members’ voting on proposals at the agenda. Continue reading
Peter Harris speaks to Reload about why the co-op model is important, how blockchain can change music, and why Resonate is different. Listen here. Continue reading
This extends from actively pursuing an inclusive platform to minimizing our environmental impact. We’re working to offset our carbon footprint. Our servers are carbon-neutral, and we’re pleased to announce that we’re also planting trees to reduce our carbon emissions. Some members of our core team have to fly fairly frequently, so we’ve been calculating the carbon footprint for each trip. Resonate is donating to Eden Reforestation Projects to plant trees to offset it – thanks to team favorite Fis for the idea! Continue reading
For our German-speaking users, Resonate is featured in this piece on blockchain and the future of the music industry. Continue reading
Resonate Founder and CEO had a chat with our collaborators over at WARM. Find out about the experiences that led him to start Resonate, why credits are important for #stream2own, and the risks of algorithmic curation. Continue reading
One of the biggest challenges we face in this respect is that our membership base is expansive, and different members often know radically different things about the platform. Someone that signed up last week inevitably has different expectations to someone that joined two years ago. As Resonate grows, our situation has changed substantially. Most of our staff only joined this past March, and it’s been a tricky but exciting transition to get the whole team up and running. Continue reading
Recently, we informed you of upcoming changes to our membership system. Today, we’re pleased to announce that we’re launching an exciting new version of our beta player! Thanks to a lot of hard work from our fantastic dev team (especially from Marie Gauthier, Alex Crane and Augustin Godiscal), #stream2own beta has a host of new features. New theme The first thing you’ll notice about our new player is its new aesthetic. Continue reading
Read about Resonate in Danish! We’re in Altinget. Continue reading
Up until recently, Resonate was entirely volunteer led. Our dedicated team is now working hard to transform our player into a truly viable service. We’re aware that the player isn’t perfect, but we’re working on a few exciting things, such as: upgrades to navigation and general usability, a streamlined uploading system, a new membership system and more. Posts detailing these changes are forthcoming, so please keep an eye out on our blog or newsletter. Continue reading
In our efforts to support independent music culture, we’re doing a bit of research. We’d like to know what organizations, networks and collectives matter to you. Let us know who you think makes a difference — whose values you share, and whose actions you believe in. Please fill out the form below to help us out. [gravityform id=”74″ title=”false” description=”false”] Continue reading
Read about how blockchain can change the music industry in this Mixmag piece by Neil Queen-Jones. Continue reading
Peter Harris speaks to Oliver Sylvester-Bradley from OPEN about #stream2own, RChain, co-op decision making and more. Read the full interview here. Continue reading
As we build a new, direct artist-to-fan music platform, we want to ensure that all people and communities are supported. It’s important to us to build a welcoming environment for all. We believe that inclusivity and diversity are essential for strong communities, and we aim to reflect this across all fronts. Resonate supports artists in all stages of their careers, and welcomes people of all genders, races, sexualities, backgrounds, physical appearances, abilities, religions and ages. Continue reading
The Guardian also published Isabelle Morrison’s article on us. Read about how #stream2own can empower artists here. Continue reading
YES! Magazine published a whole piece on Resonate; read words from musician Kepla, board member Nati Linares and founder Peter Harris here. Continue reading
We were featured in WIRED UK’s piece on how co-ops and blockchain tech can change the startup landscape. Read about collaborations, accelerators and other exciting projects here. Continue reading
Since RChain’s investment in Resonate, our team has been working hard to deliver the co-op with a viable service that accords with our values and aims. Later this year, substantial revisions will be made to our membership system. We’re hoping to deliver these changes in Q4, but in the meantime, we want to keep you informed about what we’re keeping busy with. Our systems guru Matt Keenan is leading the dev team on this; they’re working hard to build a new system almost entirely from scratch, taking into account all of the lessons we’ve learned so far. Continue reading
Resonate outreach team members Terry Tyldesley and Jim Hatch will be appearing at The Great Escape for AIM House. The Great Escape is a festival for new music, bringing emerging artists from all over the world to multiple venues across Brighton. Resonate will be taking part in AIM’s new collaboration with the festival, AIM House. We’re excited to be hosting a fireside interview with Imogen Heap of Mycelia, and Ninja Tune co-founder Matt Black. Continue reading
We’ve been featured in this Billboard piece on how blockchain and co-ops can help artists get paid. Continue reading
Plenty of major developments are ongoing here at Resonate. Last weekend, we sponsored Music Connected, an annual event organized by the Association of Independent Music. Today, we’re pleased to announce that Resonate has officially joined their community. What is AIM? Formed by a number of independent labels in 1999, the Association of Independent Music is a non-profit trade organization dedicated to aiding independent music in the UK. It has since grown to represent over 800 members, including artists, labels, publishers and start-ups. Continue reading
WARM Music WARM is the first large-scale radio airplay monitor, built solely for the purpose of providing independent artists, bands and music professionals with transparency when it comes to radio plays. The service uses audio fingerprint technology to match audio on radio with mp3 files, and their database is already home to 27 million songs and 25.000 radio stations in 130 countries. By using WARM, anyone can monitor any song in real-time on radio stations worldwide. Continue reading
Off Axis Off Axis is a touring network that has been revolutionizing the grassroots live music sector in the UK for the last five years. They enable artists to play shows all over the country, guaranteeing them audiences even in places they’ve never visited before. It works by connecting performers with one another, and allowing them to host gigs in their respective hometowns. Like us, they also value independent culture and work to defend it. Continue reading
Identity and music on the blockchain While Resonate has long described using blockchain technology for managing music catalogs, some see a potential dark side. Imagine, for a moment, a teenager in Nebraska uploading Kanye West’s catalog into a decentralized music system powered by smart contracts, which funnels crypto earnings into a hundred different untraceable wallets – torrenting on steroids, essentially. For all the benefits of decentralized systems, there are a number of key issues that need to be addressed. Continue reading
By now, you probably have an idea of how #stream2own works – what makes it new, and why it’s exciting. But maybe you’re still wondering what exactly Resonate membership means for artists and labels. This can essentially be broken down into two basic areas: the streaming side of things, and the co-op side of things. Here, we’ll explain what all this entails. #stream2own: uploading and earning Being a label or artist on Resonate involves a few different things. Continue reading
There are plenty of big things happening at Resonate, and today we’re excited to announce yet another milestone: we’re joining the Association of American Independent Music. What is the Association of American Independent Music? The Association of American Independent Music, or A2IM, is a non-profit trade organization that helps indie labels by promoting access through advocacy, education and networking opportunities. With the belief that independent music has long been underrepresented in America’s mainstream media, A2IM serves to remind broadcasters and elected officials that musical diversity is important. Continue reading
People often ask us questions such as: “What parts of Resonate are built on blockchain?” Or, “What are you working on right now?” This post will explore current developments*, after we take a brief look at our history with this highly unique technology. Since our inception, Resonate has been determined to use blockchain as the core tech for the future of the platform. The co-operative, where ownership and decision-making are distributed and democratic, is the business format most closely aligned with decentralized technologies like blockchain. Continue reading
Resonate is continuing to build connections all over the industry – today, we’re announcing our new role as an associate of the Music Managers Forum. On April 19th, Resonate will be holding a round table discussion in collaboration with the MMF and its member managers in London. We’ll be discussing future opportunities for blockchain technology as well as workshopping requirements of managers that will be implemented in our future development. Continue reading
We’re pleased to announce that we’ll be sponsoring this year’s edition of Music Connected! Run by the Association of Independent Music, it is the UK’s leading digital music conference. Resonate founder Peter Harris will be speaking on a panel about streaming: “The rise of streaming continues with consumption habits increasingly leaning towards DSPs. Our panel will look at the importance of streaming strategies for a campaign, how to increase your presence on platforms, tips for getting playlisted and what advances to expect in the streaming landscape in the coming months and years. Continue reading
RChain’s recent investment in Resonate was also picked up by DJ Mag; read more about that and our mission here. Continue reading
Plenty of big things are happening here at Resonate! Last month we quietly released the anticipated upgrade to our #stream2own player, featuring a wide range of new features and improvements. We’ve been focusing on improving the overall availability and reliability of Resonate services, as well as tending to minor bugs. Our recent update to the #stream2own beta player delivered new key features and improved user experience. Updates included mobile-first design improvements, expanded “more info” sections on individual songs, a more streamlined way to favorite and hide tracks, as well as a more intuitive navigational experience. Continue reading
The exciting news about our partnership with RChain broke yesterday, and Resident Advisor was the first publication to cover it! Read more about Reflective Ventures’ $1M USD investment here. Continue reading
*Note: this article remains published for historical purposes. This post explains our current position on blockchain tech. Beyond just being a next-gen P2P system, blockchain has the potential to fundamentally rewire all human value exchange, building in fairness, transparency and accountability into the firmware of organizations and communities. Today we’re excited to announce a partnership that will help us achieve those goals on multiple levels. A new blockchain system called RChain will be investing $1M US into Resonate through their investment arm Reflective Ventures. Continue reading
Is the internet actually benefiting the music industry? NewStatesman weighs out the different perspectives on this issue. Continue reading
You can find Resonate mentioned in Furtherfield as part of this piece, “Spring season of art and blockchain essays, interviews and events”. Continue reading
Are you ready to get a little more inspired by the advantages Resonate currently gives to musicians and labels? Join in the conversation by listening about the current and future plans that founder of Resonate, Peter Harris, talks to Portia Sabin, on The Future of What, Episode #109. Continue reading
Take a stroll through this article to find a journey some independent artists are on and how Resonate can play a part in providing royalties and equitable streaming payments on the road of independent music. Continue reading
Read more in this Shadowproof article to see how Resonate’s platform may be seen as a form of protest. Continue reading
Thanks to everyone who voted in the survey. We incorporated your comments and feedback into the development process, which is now live in the latest release of the beta player. Launch the beta app. Continue reading
Since we have released our beta application we have been thinking a great deal about the legal framework it operates under and specifically the Terms of Use for our site and music player. Although clicking an “agree to terms” checkbox has become a boring, bureaucratic step we almost always ignore, the dynamics definitely change because we are a cooperative. (Please read this post if you are just jumping in and don’t know what a co-op is and why we decided to go down this path. Continue reading
The #stream2own beta player has been running a few months now and due to the patience and support of the community, we’re now close to releasing our next major update. Thanks to everyone who has written in with feedback and bug reports, we’ve redesigned key elements of the player, improving navigation and user experience as well as incorporating some long-anticipated features. We’re excited to show some screenshots of the redesign in the slideshow below. Continue reading
Find out more about Resonate’s stream-to-own blockchain experience in this article from CASH music. Continue reading
French readers! Les Voix Du Monde has an article featuring Resonate. Read it here. Continue reading
Shareable writes about the innovative funding models that have been utilized in platform cooperatives such as Resonate. It includes information on blockchain, alternative currencies and equity crowdfunding. Continue reading
WIRED Magazine explores the streaming sites that give more empowerment to musicians. Continue reading
Want more info about blockchain’s ability to provide musicians’ with more direct music payments and transactions? Read this. Continue reading
Such a crazy amount of stuff happening right now that I’m just going to resort to bullet lists… General milestones close to 2500 tracks in the #stream2own player over 2000 members of the Resonate community over 25,000 streams since beta launch In development working with the team to make general navigational improvements, including a special focus on the mobile experience close to announcing a blockchain consortium project, collaborating on key infrastructure to support an open, transparent ecosystem planning the framework for more collaborative engagement with the Resonate community Berlin events Continue reading
Peter interviewed by Musicpreneur host James Newcomb. Continue reading
Exploring the intersection of blockchain and transparency/sustainability for the music industry in this podcast. Continue reading
The first thing to know is that all music is first uploaded through artist accounts, then the songs show up in the label’s music player. On the label welcome page there are basically two steps for getting your content up. create your artist accounts upload or send us your files First we start by creating the artist accounts – you can use this form to send us a list. Click the + icon to add more names. Continue reading
https://vimeo.com/204036155/ List of new features: Load new playlists Top 100 tracks Most favorited Recommended by Resonate Latest songs Randomize all – everything we have new – stuff you haven’t heard More info arrow icon below song time shows more details links to all tracks by artist a LOT more coming with this soon So that’s the latest from our volunteer developer team! Changing habits is hard, so keep it simple… try #stream2own for 30 minutes a day. Continue reading
Building a robust, easily searchable music application is crazy complex. After all, look at all the different ways one common music genre can be tagged… hip-hop Hip Hop hiphop Presently in the #stream2own app there are two main ways to discover music. The first is by searching in the artists/labels pop-out menu (look for the purple arrow on the far left). The second main way to find music is by searching for genres: Continue reading
This tutorial will walk you through the process of creating a separate band profile which can be linked to your solo artist profile. Continue reading
Resonate’s decentralization artist/activist advisor Mat Dryhurst interviewed by Resident Advisor. Continue reading
Added artist + label browsing in the app and have had some reports that the “opening the drawer” action isn’t working for everyone. Feedback appreciated! Currently working on building a complete catalog system for sharing individual songs and albums. Plus affiliate commissions which can be seen now in artist + label profiles. Continue reading
Well, it’s a single sentence mention but the overall context of the article is worth noting. Continue reading
This press mention deserves a closer look. This story in The Verge describes a startup named Voltra and their stream to own service. Flattering to see this innovative model gaining wider adoption, as we think it’s the best solution for artists to earn a sustainable income. We also wholeheartedly agree with the notion that owning music is critical, not just to the support of the creators, but also for those who truly love the art. Continue reading
https://soundcloud.com/the-weekly-squeak/blockchain-music-and-tech-cooperatives-with-resonate Continue reading
Interview with the German music blog Puls. Continue reading
With the commencement of the crowd campaign and release of the beta #stream2own app, plans for future development have been evolving quickly. Let’s explore the three main areas of development and look at the list of planned features. Lines/items marked in grey have been completed. #stream2own app #stream2own methodology – system for calculating increasing micro-payments artist content mgmt – multi-track uploads, playlists, metadata editing commissions system – incentivization program to accelerate growth buy now + more info – explore content in the app search + filtering – find content by playlists, genre, artist, labels embeddable players – for artists, labels and curators special surprises – now, it wouldn’t be a surprise if we told ya, right? Continue reading
If you haven’t read many of the numerous stories through the years about losses in the streaming music market, then the headline may seem like an odd question at first. After all, how can a company like Spotify be worth $8 Billion but still hasn’t made a profit after 10 years in business? Jeff Price (one of the original co-founders of Tune Core) may have the answer: “Spotify’s goal is to attract a lot of people to its service and then translate this ‘market share’ into a financial value via an IPO. Continue reading
Quite a lot going on behind the scenes… new account management pages + profiles, a playlist builder for artists, a system for displaying Supporter Shares and dozens of other small improvements throughout. As always, always ready for your feedback! Continue reading
Great feature story about music and blockchain technology featuring Resonate and our advisors Mat Dryhurst + Lars Holdhus. Continue reading
When I did a quick search for “road” on pexels.com this one really stuck out, because it pretty much sums up everything at Resonate right now. The view from the hill speaks to taking a moment to reflect and get a bird’s eye view on where you’ve been and where you’re going. Of course, the twists and turns expresses current events with Resonate even more. It definitely has NOT been a straight path! Continue reading
We’re experiencing a temporary outage with logins. Should be back up this afternoon. When restored you can check out the new Favorites function. Now on all tracks in the playlists! Swipe right to save to your favorites and left to remove. Continue reading
Emails inviting backers to sign up are going out today. We’ll start inviting people in groups of 25 on a first-come first-served basis. SPECIAL NOTE: Account password changes will not instantly sync. You may need to wait up to 12 hours to access the app again after changing your password. Continue reading
Video podcast interview with the Epicenter Podcast crew. Continue reading
“Innovative music cooperatives are solving the inefficiencies of the music industry by reshaping ways artists can monetize and distribute their music.” read more Continue reading
Bas Grasmayer included Resonate in a feature about four startups representing future trends in the industry. Continue reading
The concept is fairly straightforward – incentivize the use of embeddable playlists. There are countless high-traffic sites that offer playlists as a core feature in their content. Additionally there are hundreds of high-profile artists who may not be contractually allowed to self-distribute but are nonetheless interested in participating with the project because they care about our values – fairness for artists and a more sustainable business model for streaming. Combined, these channels present a major opportunity to gain increasing exposure to the Resonate message through embeddable players. Continue reading
Let’s be honest. We face a number of unique challenges… a desire to build a service based on very new technology, being outside the sights of the VC community that funds the majority of startups, yearning for fairness and justice for all as a cooperative… and the fact that we’re up against competitors with essentially unlimited resources. “Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to shoot a photon torpedo down this tiny little vent shaft in the hopes that it will trigger a chain reaction and…” Those are the challenges we face to build a streaming service that’s truly economically sustainable for artists. Continue reading
The crowd campaign launched last week and, to be honest, we hit some stumbling blocks immediately. Apart from a few device-specific bugs, the biggest feedback we got was around the language for investor shares. The story about this is detailed in the video below, but just in case it needs to be said again, the answer is no. Investors do not get extra votes when they buy additional shares. What they DO get is an 8% when we make a profit. Continue reading
Profile on Resonate in the music industry blog MusicAlly. We were also mentioned on the “30 music startups to watch in 2017” list. Continue reading
Interview with OuiShare project manager Francesca Pick. This article has also been re-published on Shareable and the P2P Foundation websites. Continue reading
A brief mention but still worth celebrating. It’s The Nation after all. Continue reading
Interview and feature story from music blog HighClouds. Continue reading
It’s what you’ve all been waiting for; you knew it was coming in October, so… the Resonate crowd-owning campaign is starting on the 25th! For just $5, music fans can secure their ownership share in a new streaming music service that everyone owns. Join the cooperative, bringing democracy into music streaming with one member, one share, one vote. Together we’re building a truly fair, transparent system so artists always get paid for what is played. Continue reading
Podcast from Kill Rock Star’s Future of What show. Also features A2IM CEO Richard Burgess. Continue reading
We have a bit of news to reveal, but first, some back story is in order because it relates to all the 9/9 hype. People often ask “why is it nine plays in the stream to own model?” My usual instinct (but never spoken answer) is “how could it not be?” It’s not just that I’ve been haunted by the number ever since I heard John Lennon’s trippy composition on the While Album. Continue reading
This German music blog asks if we’re a revolution in streaming. (We think so.) Continue reading
In this doc we’re going to take a look at a broad overview of our plans* for building a blockchain for the music industry. If you have no clue what a blockchain is, then start with our articles on metadata and licensing and scenarios for DJs and producers. After participating in Imogen Heap’s Mycelia project, becoming as an acting member of Berklee’s Open Music Initiative and co-organizing a week-long blockchain lab for Music Tech Fest one thing has become crystal clear – overly ambitious blockchain projects are doomed to fail. Continue reading
The short version is that it was quite eye-opening to find out how much they loved Spotify. Bad assumption on my part to assume all indies are on the same side of the controversy about the streaming giant’s royalty payments. Ooops. That led to reexamining some articles and eventually an even bigger task – revising the Resonate profit calculator to not just single out Spotify, but also include references to the other big streamers. Continue reading
This post explores how Resonate has evolved from the seed of an idea to its current status and roadmap. Business development Began in Spring of 2015 with the seed of an idea… to solve problems of engagement and accountability in music startups by using the cooperative business structure. Followed shortly thereafter with advent of the stream to own listening model. Part time volunteers joined in October 2015. Resonate’s founder went full time in early Spring 2016, followed by other key members of the team… Shane Morris, Victor Matekole, Ian Warner and Timothée Goguely to namedrop a few. Continue reading
Numerous mentions in this blog post about blockchains and the future of the music biz. Continue reading
“Endlich ein fairer Streaming-Dienst?” Interview with German-language music site Groove. Continue reading
While our main focus is on building a wicked streaming music player, we’ve always had video in mind for our long-term strategy. Thanks to a new partner, it’s looking like video may kill beat out the streaming star. Introducing PopChest. PopChest is a new micro-payments-based video streaming platform that allows producers to monetize their content more effectively than with ad-revenue-sharing schemes like YouTube. Turns out fans are willing to pay a few cents to stream good content. Continue reading
In-depth exploration of the history of Resonate and personal motivations of founder Peter Harris. Podcast interview hosted by John Hammond Continue reading
This article outlines our proposal to join forces with music-oriented blogs to achieve multiple goals – promotional support for Resonate, a new revenue stream for curators and the creation of a new delivery scheme for blog content. Through our innovative #stream2own system and intention to build more robust music communities, Resonate envisions creating a fully immersive music experience that extends beyond simply streaming the latest indie music. While the music player is the core of the application, the possibilities for incorporating additional content channels are plenty. Continue reading
*Note: this article remains published for historical purposes. This post explains our current position on blockchain tech. What technology could usher in a new era of unparalleled creative freedom, artistic control and collaborative expression? OK, given the title of the article you probably already know the answer to that compelling question, but your follow up is most likely “why?” In our introduction to blockchains for metadata and licensing we looked at some broad issues about this emerging technology, but now we’re going to look at how this will effect DJs and producers. Continue reading
Podcast interview with Andrew Apanov of Dotted Music and WeSpin. Continue reading
Whether it’s questionable accounting practices, inflated price-points for consumers or shady contracts for artists, many large record labels have been rightfully accused of unethical behavior. For the last 10-15 years it’s been technically feasible for artists to completely produce and distribute their music independently. It spite of this, we think the role of the independent record label has never been so important. Traditionally, the role of the record label has been to guide and shape the careers of artists. Continue reading
“The most significant advancements in knowledge and ideology arise when someone challenges the institutions we take for granted.” Great opening line by Cherie Hu who explored our quest to build a fair streaming system in Forbes. Continue reading
Building a music community from the ground up presents us with a chance to innovate in a number of unique ways. Beyond the essential first step of a consumer-facing streaming app is the opportunity to create an entirely new ecosystem for software and hardware developers to showcase their work. Contrary to virtually every other streaming service, Resonate is building everything open source. Being a cooperative, it fits with our ethos of openness and transparency, but we’re doing that for other reasons as well – overwhelming efficiency and prosperity. Continue reading
After settling upon the idea of running Resonate as a cooperative (to provide ownership and decision making powers to everyone that uses the service) the next goal was really clear… create a fair payments system. By spring 2015 the news had already been full of stories about unfair payment practices with the other streaming services. So the challenge seemed pretty straight-forward – create a listening model where you could do simple accounting and pay artists for every play. Continue reading
Here are the latest progress updates for Resonate. (May was so busy that I’m finally getting to this in June!) Some significant milestones: did an interview with Forbes contributor Cherie Hu (who also joined the marketing team) participated in various Platform Coop and blockchain discussions at the re:publica conference in Berlin planned a roadmap for developing the player demo which leads up to the crowd-owning campaign this fall a few new labels joined as well as dozens of more artists added more core team and advisory board members to the collaborators page interview with CoinDesk about the blockchain event Two other developments require more in-depth review – Shane Morris joining Resonate and our participation in the Music Tech Fest blockchain lab. Continue reading
Coverage about the blockchain lab co-organized by Resonate founder Peter Harris at Music Tech Fest. Continue reading
We were referenced in Trebor Scholz’s new ebook “PLATFORM COOPERATIVISM – Challenging the Corporate Sharing Economy” which is available for free download from Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung. Continue reading
So much has been happening in the last few weeks that it’s hard to keep track of who knows what about which particular development. So, in no particular order, a list of milestones for Resonate in the last few weeks: Peter will be co-organizing the #MTFLab: Blockchain event at Music Tech Fest in Berlin at the end of May. He also attended the Mycelia event in London where lots of ideas were discussed and prototypes built on the blockchain for music topic. Continue reading
Resonate was featured in the print version of Parisian magazine A Nous Paris, published on April 11th. Download the PDF or check the streets of Paris! Continue reading
A critical difference between Resonate and other streaming services that have been built on closed-door deals is transparency. The fact is, creators have been shut out from the negotiation process for far too long. Therefore we’re setting a new standard for accountability for all participants impacted by the use of their art within our platform. We’re building a label and artists payment methodology where every process is direct and upfront. Not necessarily published in a public register, but completely open and transparent between artists and labels. Continue reading
Briefly mentioned in the March 21st online addition (and print edition in April) of In These Times. Slight bummer that an hour long interview got reduced to a single sentence, but I’m sure we’ll be back once things progress. 😉 Continue reading
Peter was interview for the German music industry blog Jäger und Sampler on February 16, 2016. Continue reading
For as long as we’ve been working on the project, our main focus has been on strategies centered around convincing existing streaming music customers to make the switch to Resonate. The thinking went… by first attracting hardcore fans who care about the issue of fair trade streaming, we can persuade them to commit a portion of their music budget to using a service that makes sure artists always get paid for what is played. Continue reading
*Note: this article remains published for historical purposes. This post explains our current position on blockchain tech. In this post, we’ll explore another emerging trend – using the blockchain for managing and automating music metadata and licensing. Very briefly, the blockchain is the technology framework that powers Bitcoin, which is a digital currency that operates without a central bank. To begin to grasp the potential it holds, let’s compare it to virtually everything else that exists online. Continue reading
Contrary to the design and user experience of most streaming apps and services, music can’t be reduced to simple functions such as play, skip, shuffle and like. Music inspires movements, dictates trends in all other art forms and even shifts entire cultures in new directions. {.nobgcolor}Given that significant portions of our lives have moved online, an obvious question emerges… why don’t our digital music experiences come anywhere close to reflecting the power and importance music has on our lives? Continue reading
“Wait, what?” If you noticed the headline, you might be wondering why we’re calling this a crowd “owning” campaign instead of using the usual crowd “funding” phrase. It’s fairly simple. With most crowdfunding campaigns you are either giving money away as a donation because you believe in something, or you’re basically pre-ordering a product. And while both those scenarios are true, there’s another angle with Resonate… ownership. That’s because Resonate is a cooperative which is a unique type of business where everyone involved has equal ownership. Continue reading
Very excited to announce our first indie label partnership with Philadelphia-based Ropeadope Records. Resonate founder, Peter Harris, spoke at length with Ropeadope CEO, Louis Marks, about the need for new tools and technologies to support the indie music scene and for an alternative to the corporate monopolies dominating the streaming music space. From the Ropeadope website: “The music business has changed (again). We’ve watched as the pundits, the carnival barkers, and the monopoly guys all talked about the new music business and how you too can be famous and make a million. Continue reading
All startups need money to build stuff. Fairly obvious, right? What is not always obvious to the general public is the degree to which investors exert control over the way those projects are run. Being a cooperative means that every listener, musician and worker owns a single share enabling them to vote and receive profit distributions every year. The purpose is to give our users majority control over how our service runs – along with the bulk of profits – not just a handful of investors. Continue reading
A movement is building and a new global community is forming. The issue? Building online co-operatives to replace the “Death Star platforms” (as coined by Shareable’s Neal Gorenflo). Last week I had the great privilege of presenting Resonate to an eager crowd at the Platform Co-operativism conference in New York City. But even more important than getting to introduce our streaming music cooperative to folks from the U.S. was the opportunity to forge new bonds, create lasting partnerships and learn from the best and brightest in the field. Continue reading
We will be presenting Resonate in Berlin on November 19th at the Most Wanted Music Conference. The session is titled “New Music Business Models” and will feature other music-related startups from Berlin who will pitch their idea to industry experts, eliciting feedback and support for their projects. Session starts at 4pm in the Kino hall. Continue reading
Resonate founder Peter Harris will be appearing at the Platform Cooperativism conference in New York City at 6pm on November 13th. Peter will be presenting Resonate along with a number of other startups in this emerging niche. The event is free and is also being streamed live. Numerous activists, entrepreneurs and developers have come to a similar conclusion – that it’s time to present a new model for online services and platforms – the cooperative. Continue reading
While not strictly a media outlet, it felt important to reference this story on the Next System Project blog. Written by founders of the Platform Coop conference in New York, this is an intense essay on the need for a new economy online. Continue reading
A new form of internet startup is appearing on the tech scene – the “platform co-operative” – an attempt to merge the most equitable form of capitalism yet devised with the distributed, international, software-driven ambitions of Silicon Valley. The term was coined by Trebor Scholz and Nathan Schneider to describe an emerging organizational form that merges the “platform” (typically web-based enterprises such as Airbnb, Uber, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) with the “cooperative” – a business structure in which profits are shared across workers and members and is built on a foundation of democratic controls. Continue reading
In case you’ve never heard of this type of business, a cooperative is a company structure that allows everyone involved to be a co-owner – sharing in decisions and sharing in the profits. The saying usually goes “one member, one share, one vote” and it’s all about bringing democracy to the workplace. That’s a very brief description of what cooperatives are about, so check out Wikipedia for more details. We’re building Resonate as a cooperative as it allows everyone involved (fans, musicians, indie labels and our workers) to have a say in how the company runs. Continue reading
The reasons are fairly simple – popularity and power. First, let’s take a look at the popularity problem, which has to do with the way streaming royalties are calculated. Sharky Laguna wrote a great piece about this, so we won’t go into too much detail about it. The bottom line with the convoluted way streaming royalties are calculated, popular performers take a larger cut than less known indies. Most people think that after you listen to a song on a streaming service that a few fractions of a cent will magically appear in that performer’s bank account. Continue reading
Editors note: this legacy post needs to be updated. Discuss in the forums. While it seems that streaming is winning out as the preferred method of music consumption these days, all that glitters is not gold. There is the well-known controversy about royalty payments but usually missing from the conversation about streaming is that it isn’t fair to artists because it’s simply not a sustainable business model. As we’ll explain more below, streaming revenues don’t remotely compare with downloads or physical sales in terms of total generated revenue. Continue reading
