Ujo Music Founder Says Blockchain Can Fix the Music Industry
*By Jacqueline Corba*
The music industry is broken because artists are not getting paid what they should, said Ujo Music's co-founder Jesse Grushack, and he can fix it with blockchain technology.
Ujo Music is part of the Consensys studio, led by Joe Lubin, the co-founder of the blockchain-based computing platform Ethereum.
More than 80 artists, including Imogen Heap, RAC, and Giraffage, are on Ujo Music's platform. No money can be exchanged yet, but Grushack said eventually artists will be paid with Ethereum.
"What matters is the artist is getting a fair value for use of their song," Grushack said Thursday on Cheddar's The Crypto Craze.
Through Ujo Music, creators can maintain control of their licensing agreement and set their own price and rules for how their own content can be used. Grushack said the goal is to create an ecosystem in which no matter where content lives on the web, artists get paid.
"A lot of people have grand ideas in blockchain, but the pipes to build all that stuff aren't quite there yet," said Grushack. "Consensys allows us to play with ideas, play with tech, and provides us with services such as marketing and diligence."
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/how-ujo-music-is-leveraging-blockchain-to-pay-artists-fairly).
Skype users are scrambling to find an alternative after Microsoft shut down the pioneering internet phone service which let people make cheap long distance calls and chat with other users. Google Voice lets users make calls from a smartphone or a desktop web browser but it's only available to people in the U.S. Viber users can call phone numbers but can't get a number to receive calls. Zoom offers phone options too. You could get a number from a low cost virtual carrier or try other internet phone services. Microsoft says some Skype features will migrate to Teams, but its Teams Phone feature is only for businesses.
Amid a backdrop of ongoing tariff uncertainty, more and more gamers are facing price hikes. Microsoft raised recommended retailer pricing for its Xbox consoles and controllers around the world this week. Its Xbox Series S, for example, now starts at $379.99 in the U.S. — up $80 from the $299.99 price tag that debuted in 2020. And its more powerful Xbox Series X will be $599.99 going forward, a $100 jump from its previous $499.99 listing. The tech giant didn’t mention tariffs specifically, but cited wider “market conditions and the rising cost of development.” Beyond the U.S., Microsoft also laid out Xbox price adjustments for Europe, the U.K. and Australia. The company said all other countries would also receive updates locally.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said Thursday that the majority of iPhones sold in the U.S. in the current fiscal quarter will be sourced from India, while iPads and other devices will come from Vietnam as the company works to avoid the impact of President Trump’s tariffs on its business. Apple’s earnings for the first three months of the year topped Wall Street’s expectations thanks to high demand for its iPhones, and the company said tariffs had a limited effect on the fiscal second quarter’s results. Cook added that for the current quarter, assuming things don’t change, Apple expects to see $900 million added to its costs as a result of the tariffs.
Visa is hoping to hand your credit card to an artificial intelligence “agent” that can find and buy clothes, groceries, airplane tickets and other items on your behalf.