An interview with Jayesh Chatlani, CEO & Co-Founder on the new launch of The Vuze
Could you tell us about The Vuze and what it means to decentralise the music industry?
The Vuze is a platform designed to give an artist control over the music they create. We do this using the blockchain, utilising this technology to split the ownership of albums and giving the public an opportunity to act as a shareholder by purchasing shares of the given album. The decentralisation occurs on the artist side as we aren't a firm that owns the artist's work. The artist retains full control over everything.
What inspired you to start The Vuze?
The music industry plays a pivotal role in maintaining widespread culture in today’s multimedia industry and we can see this more and more through the likes of TikTok and social media as a whole. This year, we have seen more independent artists out there than ever before, with over 90% of them being unsigned and untapped. Not only are they small-scale indie artists, but also larger artists like Taylor Swift struggling to keep their rights to the music that they produce. This made us realise that we needed to make a change.
What is the goal of The Vuze?
Our goal at The Vuze is to enable the artists to create, control and crowdfund their works.
Who are you aiming to work with? Local artists or internationally? Independent or mainstream?
We are a platform with no biases. We aren’t centralised which means that we are a global foundation providing respite to artists around the world whether they be mainstream, indie, or some sort of thrash metal unheard of since the 60s.
Local or international artists will be able to work with us. We do want to work with mainstream artists. However, if they’ve already signed with a record label, it becomes an entirely new issue of legalities which is why we’ve decided to stick with any artist that is currently independent.
How does your platform engage fans and artists?
Our platform will act in two different ways depending on whether you’re an artist or a fan. For a fan, our platform will look much like other trading platforms out there with a more aesthetic touch. We wanted to make it as simple and efficient as possible to ensure that fans are pleased with our work. For artists, however, we plan to act entirely as a record label does through the power of the internet. In our initial phase, it will serve primarily to raise funds. However, we are working towards a one-stop solution to all of an artist's needs ranging from working with producers, licensing your art out for sync payments and even selling album memorabilia.
What is your ultimate goal and what are the steps you are taking to work towards it?
Our ultimate goal is to be the end-to-end solution for artists. We want them to list on our platform and emerge with the connections, money but most importantly the inspiration for them to truly create a work of art they can call their own.
Which artists are you currently working with? And in the near future?
We are working with a host of small-scale talent based in Hong Kong but also in America. We will list all of these artists on our site once the beta launch is publicly available sometime in April.