Releap Brings Decentralized Music Streaming to Arweave And Solana
Releap, a decentralised, social, music streaming NFT platform built on Solana and Arweave, made an announcement of its pubic release on January 19, 2022.
1/8 We are excited to finally make a public announcement for Releap — a decentralised music NFT platform built on #Solana and #Arweave, with a mission to empower artists with new tools to engage fans like never before.https://t.co/wc1DhyiFfK
— Releap 🎒🖼🎵✍️ (@Releap_IO) January 19, 2022
Releap wants to bring artists and their most loyal fans closer together through their NFT integrated music streaming platform built on the blockchain.
They believe that the “Music – NFT” sector of the blockchain industry is highly underdeveloped and quite unexplored. So they are now exploring and building on it themselves. They believe that NFTs and blockchain tech are capable of revolutionising the legacy music industry as much as the introduction of music streaming did many years ago.
How Does It Work?
The main purpose Releap will be utilising NFTs on their platform is to give music creators and artists a way of rewarding their most loyal fans, as well as members of their communities that contribute the most. These rewards come in many forms such as exclusive posts and access to exclusive content like unreleased tracks and demo recordings.
We had the chance to get an exclusive look at the unreleased version of the Releap dApp whilst talking to Aaron, one of the co-founders of Releap. Aaron also leads the product development and technological decisions there.
Releap is built on the foundations of the Solana and Arweave blockchains. Aaron explained that Solana was chosen as it offers high transaction speeds alongside low gas fees. He and the team at Releap believe in the longterm success of Solana.
They also stated on their Twitter account that:
“Solana’s low fees allows any fan to ape into NFTs without worrying too much about gas. Ultimately, the fastest, cheapest and most comprehensive creative tool always wins out.”
Aaron also pointed out that Arweave was selected as the decentralised file storage of choice, over other solutions like Filecoin, due to its permanence and one time fees.
During our demo presentation of the dApp, Aaron also showed his amazement for how fast data retrieval was from Arweave as he skipped through some of the existing artists’ tracks on the platform. “There is no lag at all” exclaimed Aaron.
Utilising Arweave ensures that any tracks uploaded through their platform will be accessible anytime and from anywhere in the world.
Their platform consists of three key parts.
Releap Launch
Firstly there is Releap Launch.
Releap launch will act as a launchpad in a sense. It helps artist debut their new songs. Artists will be able to set a countdown to their upcoming release. Once the countdown hits zero fans will be able to start listening to the new songs instantly. If they like what they hear, they can purchase an NFT from that artist.
Due to the nature of NFTs and the blockchain, the people that purchase that NFT will be able to prove that they were among the first listeners of that track that then supported the artist by purchasing their NFT.
The beauty of it?
This NFT will grant those first few fans instant access to the artist’s community, know on the Releap platform as their Circle, as well as, later down the line, acting as a ticket to other exclusive benefits within the artist’s Circle that only these NFT holders will have.
Releap Exchange
Then there is Releap Exchange.
This the main section of Releap’s social music marketplace. Artists, no matter when they released their music, will be able to offer NFTs to their fans. You simply browse through the marketplace, streaming music as you go, and once you find an artist you like, you can buy their NFT. This will again grant you instant access to the artist’s Circle.
Aaron took me through the marketplace, showing me many of the current artist’s on there.
The platform seemed very intuitive and easy to use as it was already. But he said that many improvements were going to be made. It seems only the best is acceptable when it comes to the Releap team.
The platform features a permanent dark theme that won’t be unfamiliar to any artists that have spent long hours in recording studios, where dimmed lights are the theme, and the LEDs from the audio interfaces and equipment shine through distinctly.
Releap Circles
This is where the die hard fans get what they came for and where artists and fans come together in their exclusive communities.
After buying an NFT from your favourite artist you will have access to their Circle. Aaron took me through this section of the dApp, showing me the wall on which artists would post their exclusive content.
It seemed like it would be very familiar looking to any users of web2 social media, like Twitter or Facebook for example, but at the same time the content is locked behind a secure door, and without the NFT in your Solana wallet, there is no way you are gaining access through that door.
Future of Releap
Aaron mentioned that he and his fellow team want Releap to be the go-to social and music streaming platform for artists and fans in the future:
“We want it to be the go to music platform for web3 users”.
Releap is here to try and fix the music streaming industry as we know it today. We must also really stress the social aspect here. It is one of the key reasons that Releap came in to existence. It has music communities at its core.
And NFTs, when utilised correctly, can have extreme real world utility when it comes to music artists and the music industry.
I’ll leave you with this.
I asked Aaron what he would say to new artists only just starting their musical journey today. And this is what he had to say.
“The current music industry is broken. It isn’t feasible for new artists to make a living income through streaming. Web3 opens a new door for revenue. (Web3 in the Music Industry) is just getting started. And it will soon experience what the visual arts industry recently did.”
