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Nas and Pusha T are among the celebrity investors backing Audius, a crypto-powered streaming service that's set to rival Spotify, Apple Music and TIDAL.

September 16, 2021 Audius has also received backing from a host of veteran music executives including former Sony/ATV Music Publishing CEO Martin Bandier, Madonna and U2s longtime manager Guy Oseary, and Frank Ocean and Calvin Harris manager Mark Gillespie. As Rolling Stone points out, the last time such a group of music heavyweights invested into a streaming platform was JAY-Zs TIDAL which launched in 2015 with over a dozen artist stakeholders including Beyonc, Kanye West, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna and J. Cole. Like TIDAL, Audius offers artists increased ownership opportunities in the platform. But what sets the up-and-coming service apart from competitors is its expedited payment process. Thanks to its blockchain functionality, 90% of earnings from monetized streams moves to the artist in real time with 10% going to the community that keeps the streaming service running. Its this blockchain technology that has helped attract such an elite coterie of investors. I believe might be the most important technology to ever hit the music industry, Nas said in a statement. Everyone who uploads to Audius can be an owner. You cant say that about any other platform. Martin Bandier added, The blockchain is enabling entirely new revenue streams for artists and creators, like NFTs, social currency, and curation. Audius is not only using the blockchain to add potentially significant revenue streams for artists, but it also allows them to cooperatively own the platform itself. Read more