Stem a new startup tapping the power of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency is creating an application that aims to provide content creators a “fair share of earnings and information in a clear and timely manner.”The company has just raised $4.5 million USD in funding led by investment firms such as Upfront Ventures, and well-known music industry managers like Scooter Braun.
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Stem: ‘Mo Money, No Problem’
Introduced in 2015, Stem (Stem.is) tracks and organizes revenue streams from platforms such as Spotify, YouTube, SoundCloud, and more. It allows content creators to upload material, create contracts, manage distribution, and ultimately earn revenue in a simpler way than most distribution providers offer. The startup was founded by Tim Luckow, Milana Rabkin, Jovin Cronin-Wilesmith, who have great faith in digital currencies such as Bitcoin and blockchain technology verification. In a Stem blog post the company states:
Digital currency has the potential to reduce the amount of error and confusion in identifying ownership of intellectual property while also minimizing turnaround times and transaction fees for each payment. To put it more simply, digital currency can make payments instantaneous and remove any chance of a person making an error in that payment.
The company says its application will allow content creators such as musicians and vloggers the ability track and easily collect earning via the Stem OS. Firms such as Upfront Ventures, Three Six Zero, Third Wave Digital, and Blockchain Capital have invested in this new firm. Alongside venture capital investors music industry executives such as Bradford Cobb (Katy Perry), and Scooter Braun (Justin Bieber) have also added funds to the development team’s coffers.
The latest seed round gained the startup $4.5 million USD in addition to an undisclosed amount received in October from Mark Cuban. Stem is using this financial technology to disrupt current incumbents. “Utilizing new technologies associated with digital currency is important to our objective of empowering creators and making sure they can easily collect their earnings,” the Stem team explains.
The technologies Stem will be using associated with cryptocurrency include the use of the blockchain to keep records, smart contracts, and micropayments, which offer instant low fee payments. Stem plans to use these to distribute revenue automatically between providers such as SoundCloud and Apple Music. The team details utilizingmicropayments “could increase the clarity of one’s financial situation.”
The company says that there has been a lot of editorialsabout technology and distributed ledgers changing the music industry for the better. The company says they fully believe these predictions will come to fruition. Investors see this tech emerging as the company gets its seed investment mojo on. Funnily enough, the Los Angeles-based company slogan is “Mo Money, No Problems.”
