The Opulous platform will allow artists to borrow money against their past streaming revenues
Music distribution and record label services company Ditto yesterday announced the launch of Opulous, the first ever decentralised finance (DeFi) platform where music will function as an asset class. Artists will no longer need to rely on traditional financial institutions like banks in order to access capital.
Ditto has so far processed over $1 billion in royalties, and many of its more than 250,000 users hold their streaming revenues in their accounts. The new platform will be open to anyone, not just Ditto users, and presents a new opportunity for investors, as well as a chance for artists to fund their future career who may not be eligible for financial support through traditional means.
Opulous is a peer-to-peer platform where artists can contribute to and borrow from a loan pool. Artists and investors can earn 10% per annum on their contributions by paying into Opulous’ Music Copyright Pools. Loans are guaranteed against artists’ past streaming revenues when they borrow money from the pool, with the copyrights they own being held as collateral.
“Musicians are often largely overlooked when it comes to traditional banking loans, or the terms are so unfavourable it isn’t worth their time,” explained Ditto CEO Lee Parsons. “Using De-fi, Opulous cuts out traditional banking, providing musicians a platform with minimal interest payments, while giving investors the chance to stake a claim in one of the most exciting and fastest growing financial industries in the world.”
Artists and investors will be connected by the use of blockchain technology, and the monthly premium and interest payments will be automated by smart contracts, with profits being directed straight to investors.
Opulous is being built on Algorand’s open-source public blockchain with the support of RandLabs. Transactions on Algorand are quick, efficient and secure from anywhere in the world thanks to its pure proof-of-stake consensus protocol.
Borderless Capital, BASIC, Kosmos Capital, TrustVerse and Somesing all supported Opulous’ seed round funding in which it raised $1.5 million. Elastos has also been confirmed as one of the first staking partners.
CEO and Managing Partner of Borderless Capital, David Garcia, commented, “Using blockchain technology to democratize the access to the music’s capital markets is really disruptive and unique. We are excited to back the Opulous platform and for the opportunities this is bringing to investors and music artists. By building on top of the Algorand blockchain, Opulous platform will perform as one of the first real world DeFi applications.”
Opulous expects to launch a minimal viable product in two months.