Vuzec is a decentralised exchange and a music distribution aggregator on Polygon that allows artists to crowdfund and fans to connect with the music they love. We are here to liberate the music industry, by realising the financial potential of music as an asset class, which will enable both artists and their fans to connect and support each other like never before.
Our launch comes at the cusp of a new NFT summer and Web3 explosion, where the long theorised use-cases of NFTs are finally realised and put into action. Vuzec is at the forefront of bringing theory into reality, for the benefit and delectation of both artists and their fans.
Inception — Thesis
Musicians yearn for their work to appreciate and to be appreciated, their fans desire returns on their love and support they’ve invested into their favourite musicians. Yet, the interests of artists and those of the music records have always been misaligned, often to the disadvantage of the artist. The industry average of royalties earned from record labels from artists range from merely 10% to 25%. The limited income for artists stymies their artistic and creative liberty.
The 2010s brought us crowdfunding as means for artists to reclaim their creative and financial sovereignty, but it didn’t really succeed. Those who contributed toward artists got very little in return, and backers have very little incentive to create awareness of their music they backed.
Nobody is really winning, despite that they should have all the reasons to.
We know that the returns of the partnership between musicians and their early backers should be positive. Why? Because music generates income. If something generates income, it is an asset. The relationship between a fan and the musician is therefore one of patronage, where both parties ultimately gain. The musician produces the asset, the backer provides the material and support just to do so.
Music is an asset.
Yet, the infrastructure to back the production of these assets and the access to the ownership thereof have both been underdeveloped. Our mission at Vuzec, is to leverage crypto and blockchain technology to lower the barriers more than before, and to allow the potential of music as an asset class to bloom and blossom.
Our mission to help artists crowdfund their albums and to be creatively sovereign is our primary reason why we have decided to build on Polygon. Polygon’s low gas fees allow both artists and fans to use our protocol without too much concern about gas. Polygon’s EVM compatibility also allows us to remain connected with the broader Ethereum universe.
- Introducing ALMs
This is how Vuzec works:
An artist uploads an album (or take albums from other platforms such as Spotify, YouTube, or Audius) onto Vuzec , Vuzec tokenizes it through ERC1155 token called ALM, and the ALM token of that album proceeds to trade on Vuzec’s DEX. Each album corresponds to 100,000 ALM tokens, i.e. there are 100,000 shares for each album.
Vuzec then takes the album and distributes it to our streaming partners. There, the music collects royalties, which are then sent back to Vuzec. Artists may decide what proportion of their ALM tokens are to be sold on Vuzec, and the percentage of royalties collected are to be distributed to holders of their ALM token.
This design allows high and continuous support for artists post-release, and for fans to take a stake in the artist’s music, and indeed the artist’s entire career. This aligns the interest of the musicians and fans, encouraging both to make it together. Given Vuzec is deployed on Polygon, Vuzec is poised to reach a wide collection of fans to support musicians.
2. Trading Music
By making albums into tradeable tokens, we can proceed to apply crypto magic to music.
For example, for every new ALM token, 5% of the 100k supply will be reserved for Vuzec, of which 2.5% is placed into funds. These are essentially “ALM ETFs”, to be called “Playlists”. Album token valuation is benchmarked to real-world performance.
Fans can buy the ALM token of the album of the musician they support, thereby allowing the musician to crowdfunding. Individuals who want diversified exposure to music as an asset class can buy into the Collections.
If music is an asset, it should be traded like an asset, and Vuzec is here to enable that. Vuzec’s ALM model does that by:
- Helping artists to easily crowdfund from a global audience;
- Continuously incentivising ALM holders to continuously support the artist on their musical career and journey;
- Enabling royalty sharing with fans, thereby making early patronage a win-win activity;
- Transforming music into full-fledged, ownable, income-generating assets.
The symbiosis between musicians and their fans is enabled like never before.
3. Introducing Vuzecoin
Vuzecoin (VZE), our native utility and governance token, will be used to make transactions, staking for collectibles, and participation offerings in Vuzec’s ecosystem.
The VZE token will also be used in any expansions to the platform developed by us including but not limited to a sync payments interface, music memorabilia NFTs and even a virtual concert called “The Vuzec Tour”. The demand for VZE tokens will be ensured by the platform fees and subsequent expansions which will be available with priority to VZE holders.
The VZE token will hold rights to govern all aspects of the platform. The total supply of 1,000,000,000 VZE tokens will be allocated as such:
Exit to DAO
The final form we envision for Vuzec is a Decentralised Autonomous Organization (DAO). We believe an efficient democracy is the best way to govern and DAOs do it the best. Vuzec aims to fully decentralize as much of its operations as possible to make it a full fledged DAO — one that is programmed by the interests of musicians and their fans.
After Vuzec is up and running, we will start to explore and transform the leadership and financial structure of the project into a DAO.
4. Onwards
Vuzec is a decentralised exchange and a music distribution aggregator on Polygon that allows musicians to crowdfund and fans to connect with the music they love. We’re delighted to see new supporters joining us on our Twitter and Discord everyday. We are growing fast, and we are still expanding our team, and we would be delighted to have you join us in revolutionising the future of music.
