Digital Music Ecosystems: From Fair Trade to Smart Contracts

Today, copyright is a globalized business model and the cultural industry is a key economic factor in many countries. At the same time, digital technologies are transforming music practices around the world, with streaming services playing a crucial role. But who profits from it, who decides the conditions? How do musicians in Nigeria invent their own infrastructures within the network of telecommunications companies, middlemen and collecting societies? What does global fair trade for culture look like? What role does copyright play in this context? And what means of self-empowerment do smart contracts and blockchain technologies offer for a self-managed artist-led music economy?

With Keith Nurse (Sir Arthur Lewis University College; OECD Development Centre), Joey Akan (music journalist, The Guardian Nigeria), Carlotta de Ninni (The Creative Passport), Peter Harris (Resonate), moderated by Andrea Goetzke (Music Pool Berlin)