NEAR Foundation, the non-profit that supports the growth and development of the NEAR ecosystem, announced a partnership with Berklee College of Music, the largest independent college of contemporary music and performing arts in the world.
Under the terms of the agreement, Berklee has “selected NEAR Foundation as a technology partner to develop an app called RAIDAR, (Rights and Asset Information in Decentralized, Authoritative Repositories), which allows musicians and creators to buy and sell music licenses.”
Created by Berklee — under the guidance of professors George Howard and Andrea “Ani” Johnson, and powered by NEAR blockchain technology — “one of the world’s fastest scalable and cost effective protocols — the aim of RAIDAR is to build a marketplace where musicians can upload their music, along with its proper metadata, and those who require music for their projects (whether film or game makers, advertisers or others) can license music from this world-class music institution’s students.”
All transactions are recorded “on the NEAR blockchain in order to ensure legal, accurate and historic representation of the creators’ works and will utilize smart contracts to disintermediate the licensing process and ensure that musicians receive the full economic value and credit for their works.”
The product is simple to use. Musicians “upload their music files and metadata through a mobile- and desktop-friendly web app.” Their song is then “represented by a unique, secure smart contract and assigned to the creator’s wallet as an asset or NFT, empowering the creator to view and showcase the song.”
Customers buying music can “browse, search for, filter, and preview songs uploaded to the RAIDAR app by other users and then purchase single-use licenses for songs via the app.”
The song’s smart contract distributes “funds received from the payment to the song’s creator. After the purchase transaction completes, the buyer receives an email with the corresponding song download link and a copy of the license agreement.”
George Howard, Distinguished Professor of Music Business at Berklee, said:
“Those who are seeking to license music for their projects now have a chance to access and support new creators by tapping into an exciting marketplace through the RAIDAR app, which is easy to navigate and offers a safe and reliable way to pay for music.”
Professor Tonya Butler, chair of the Music Business/Management department at Berklee and managing director of the Center for Innovation and Impact, said:
“RAIDAR will serve as just one of many opportunities for our students to engage with emerging technologies, as well as collaborate with partners from the music, entertainment and related tech industries. We are extremely excited and fortunate to have NEAR join us on this journey.”
