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ARTICLE
Do artists perceive blockchain as a new revenue
opportunity? A social representation study of the
Korean music industry
Yujun Park1& Seongcheol Kim 1✉
Although blockchain has often been perceived as a game-changer that can revolutionize the
music industry, it also retains possible challenges regarding the practicality of such innovative
adoption. This study seeks to construe the realistic thoughts raised by artists regarding the
new revenue opportunities arising from the adoption of blockchain in the Korean music
industry. This involves the disintermediation of the obsolete music royalty distribution system
and a new revenue channel from the Non-fungible Token market. Based on social repre-
sentation theory and interviews with Korean artists, this study found ambivalent perceptions
towards the adoption of blockchain in the music industry - hoping for new possibilities while
also perceiving the impracticality of such innovation. Indeed, it may be too good to be true for
artists who have observed the local domain with little change regardless of their continuous
cries for help. After thorough discussion, the study provides key implications to induce sound
settlement of an innovative technology.
https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-02657-7 OPEN
1School of Media & Communication, Korea University, Seoul, South Korea. ✉email: hiddentrees@korea.ac.kr
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Introduction
Exemplified by Apple’s iPod and Spotify, the digitization of
music in the early 2000s was deemed a new paradigm shift
which presented a transitional phase from physical stores to
digital services (Faria, 2011; Riemer and Johnston, 2019). For
consumers, music became much more accessible and portable by
downloading thousands of music from a Peer-to-Peer (P2P)
website and listening on a MP3 player. For record labels, what
used to be a physical transportation to channel an overseas dis-
tribution was capacitated by the introduction of an online mar-
ketplace, reaching the global audience at once. Accordingly, labels
also encountered a major shift in revenue models from CDs to
digital downloads and streaming.
Meanwhile, the distribution of royalty shares for consuming
digital music has been opaque and unbalanced between two
major stakeholders; the music artists and business actors (Hur
2017; Lee et al., 2020; Moreau, 2013). In South Korea (hereafter,
Korea), the business actors garner 83.25% of the total revenue
through digital streaming while the producers and performers are
assigned <10% for the reward of music creation (KOMCA, 2018).
Such a phenomenon has been viewed and criticized as the
sacrifice of artists’rights and financial income over the dom-
inance of business actors persisting over the local domain for
years (Chae, 2021). Consequently, discussion to attain a fair or
just distribution system of digital music has been an unsolved
controversy and overlooked mission in Korea as well as around
the globe.
While artists have been suffering from the current system for
decades, scholars and practitioners have been paying attention to
blockchain technology which can bring the next revolution in the
music industry via disintermediation and NFT (Baym et al., 2019;
Olsson, 2022; Taghdiri, 2019). It demonstrates a silver lining to
either reconstruct the share allocation between business actors
and artists or diminish the responsible roles of the former
occupants, overcoming the decade-old problem of unfair dis-
tribution (Taghdiri, 2019). Furthermore, the Non-fungible token
(NFT) also presents a new possibility arising in the music
industry. Assuring ownership and rarity of digital products,
blockchain convinces consumers to buy NFTs, allowing artists to
seek a new revenue channel by utilizing their intellectual prop-
erties (Chang, 2022).
Although there is a logical understanding that the adoption of
blockchain defines the next era of the music industry, experts also
criticize such technology is a utopian and radical panacea (Baym
et al., 2019). Previous scholars have raised concerns over indus-
tries’readiness to accept blockchain, possible resistance by
incumbents, and mechanical issues of technology to provide
transparency of data (Baym et al., 2019; Taghdiri, 2019; Tam,
2019). Despite the ambivalent potential, there exists lack of
research revealing how the different stakeholders within the
domain realistically perceive new possibilities through block-
chain. Hence, there is a necessity to unveil the empirical views on
such utopian scenarios. In response, this paper seeks to construe
the introduction of blockchain technology in the local music
industry in terms of artists’identities, perceptions, and under-
standings of new revenue opportunities this innovative disruption
may propagate to the ecosystem. Based on social representation
theory, the authors performed omnidirectional interviews with
Korean artists. The paper intends to build an academic milestone
for developing the sustainable adoption of blockchain technology
in the music industry.
Literature review
Development of the digital music industry by tele-
communication conglomerates. The core engine of developing
the digital music industry in Korea was the vertical integration
enforced by telecommunication conglomerates. While Bugs
Music, launched in 2000, represents the first local platform to
provide digital music and opened the era of digital industry, it
was telecommunication conglomerates that accelerated the mar-
ket growth by entering the blue ocean in the digital music
industry (Kim, 2018). As the market saturation emerged in the
original industry, the conglomerates strategically performed a
media convergence with network services by collecting music and
movie to enhance competitiveness in customer value and expand
value chain as well (Kim, 2009). Since 2004, local conglomerates
—SKT, KT, and LG Telecom—not only launched MelOn, Genie
Music, and Music On as a subsidiary music service but also
established their own distribution channel, leading to an expedite
digital market growth. Although LG Telecom withdrew from the
battlefield in 2012, it is worth noting that the digital music
industry was inevitably victimized by the fierce competition
among telecommunication conglomerates.
The growth of the Korean digital music industry was
significantly influenced by the telecommunication conglomerates'
vertical integration which sought betterment in competitiveness
and expansion of value chain. This is different from the historical
chronicle of western music industry where the market transition
was induced by parent-free, independent firms such as Napster or
Spotify, with a primary purpose of promoting digital music itself
rather than seeking an extended pipeline and prioritizing market
performance. Participation by local conglomerates may have
accelerated the development of digital music industry, however, it
also endangered the balance between the economy and culture in
the local music ecosystem, interfering with the freedom and
creativity of music, and dominating the larger fraction of music
copyright royalties with their power over the distribution system
on the Internet platforms (Han, 2011; Kim, 2018).
Critical values of music streaming services. Accordingly, the
influence of music streaming services on artists eventually grew
due to the increasing dependency on the critical values the
platforms provide - the user pool and brand value. First, when
releasing albums, artists utilize music streaming services as their
first window to reach large user pool and earn royalty income via
streaming (Aguiar and Waldfogel, 2021). Furthermore, based on
the utilization of user data and recommendation algorithms,
personalized playlist services provided by platforms let users
discover new songs which provides a vital opportunity for
undiscovered artists to gain exposure and promote their music to
a large audience (Meier and Manzerolle; 2018; Prey et al., 2020).
Moreover, the brand value of music streaming services has
evolved to represent the national or global music charts and
induced multiple partnerships with entertainment firms and
music labels, signifying the significance of their existence in
today’s music industry (Aguiar and Waldfogel, 2021). As the era
of digital music has been introduced, these critical values within
the current platform service providers have been prevailing in the
local music domain since the early years of vertical integration
undergone by the telecommunication conglomerates (Kim, 2018;
Kim and Choe, 2014).
In a nutshell, Korean artists have been witnessing the
settlement of the digital music industry contributed by business
actors, prioritizing their revenue over the protection of music
copyright. However, regardless of realizing the dominance of
business actors, artists had little chance to escape from the current
system due to the critical values established by platform service
providers. Essentially, artists in the local music industry have an
inevitable dependency on platforms to continue their music
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careers regardless of the unfair royalty distribution system by
music streaming services.
Royalty distribution among stakeholders. The distribution of
royalty income yielded by online streaming is unjust and dis-
proportionate, with the majority being focused on business actors
(Chae, 2021; Hur, 2017). There are primarily three stakeholders
when determining the share and distribution of streaming
income. These three stakeholders include business actors, music
artists, and institutes that protect the copyright (KOMCA, 2018).
Business actors primarily refer to the music streaming service
providers, entertainment firms, and distributors. Music artists
refer to producers and performers who originally create music or
partially participate in the production process. Producers—
referring to composers, lyricists, and arrangers—are entitled to
own the copyright of music as an original creator whereas per-
formers—referring to vocalists or sessionists—are entitled to own
the neighboring copyright. Both rights allow artists to claim
moral rights and property rights to music where moral rights
attribute authors of their work, protect their reputation, and
prevent infringement. The property rights allow utilization of the
copyrighted content to pursue economic profit, composed of
rights of reproduction, performance, public transmission, deri-
vative work, and many more. Despite the similarities between two
concepts of copyright, the neighboring copyright has less inclu-
sive terms for moral and property rights. Additionally, business
actors who assisted in production or broadcast of music are also
entitled to own neighboring copyright without the moral rights,
giving them a chance to claim portion of streaming royalty share
as well. Institutes refer to an official collective rights management
organization which protects the copyright of artists such as the
Korea Music Copyright Association (KOMCA), and the Federa-
tion of Korean Music Performers (FKMP), established in 1964
and 1988 respectively.
According to the royalty distribution system of a music
streaming service proposed by the KOMCA, given that one
streaming of music accounts for 7 won (USD $0.0049), the artists
(copyright holder and neighboring copyright holder) have the
right to own 9.555% and 5.5625% share of total streaming income
respectively—<0.7 won per streaming (USD $0.00049) (KOMCA,
2018). Unfortunately, the ownership of copyright and neighbor-
ing copyright earned by the music creation is not the best
attribute to appeal for a bigger sum of the distribution rate. In
fact, the production firms, referring to entertainment firms in the
Korean context, hold a 38.6% share of the total income, and the
music streaming service providers hold a 35% share, followed by a
9.65% share owned by the distributor. Essentially, producers and
performers, who are vital contributors to music creation, sacrifice
a significant amount of income to business actors. Copyrights and
neighboring copyrights of artists are not protected nor appre-
ciated by the current royalty distribution system. Lastly, KOMCA
and FKMP earn 0.945% share and 0.6875% share, respectively. In
a nutshell, artists are the vital contributors of music creation but
paradoxically sacrifice a significant amount of income to business
actors.
There is a clear bipolarity among the share percentages
between business actors and artists. The contribution of original
music is not appreciated, with artists receiving <10% of the total
streaming income. Instead, the roles of music streaming service
providers and production firms account for more than one-third
of the total income for both stakeholders. In fact, there has been
consistent controversy regarding the transparency and fairness of
royalty distribution of digital music since the emergence of a new
business model in the digital music industry (Lee et al., 2020).
Table 1depicts the distribution ratio of the streaming incomes
among music streaming service providers, production firms,
distributors, producers, performers, KOMCA, and FKMP
(KOMCA, 2018).
Governmental revisions of royalty distribution system.
Throughout history, the governmental effort to amend the royalty
share system since 2003 was primarily focused on the develop-
ment of the industry and generosity to business actors. During the
digitization of the music industry, the artists were exposed of a
steep fall of unit price per track as the music consumption shifted
to digital format, from 12,500 won (USD $9.71) per physical
album to 7 won (USD $0.0049) per streaming (Baek, 2016).
Despite prolonged hardship by artists, term revisions over decades
less appreciated an ethical perspective to restore artists’financial
income and pursue a sustainable environment by balancing roy-
alty distribution ratio among stakeholders (Chae, 2021). Instead,
music artists were a passive passenger during the development
phase of the digital market (Lee et al., 2020).
According to the recent consecutive revisions, the government
passed the law to increase 5% royalty income to copyright holders
in 2019. However, its purpose only affected increase of proportions
for distributors and production firms, who also own neighboring
copyrights, by 1% and 4% respectively (MCST, 2018). Although
additional revisions were performed until 2021, it merely increased
distribution proportions of producers and performers by roughly
0.70% and 0.76% respectively (MCST, 2021). The last revision in
2023 allowed an exemption of in-app purchase policy enacted by
Google to protect the music streaming service providers and
stabilize the local industry (KOSCAP, 2023). In a nutshell, with or
without intent, the recent governmental revisions have increased
proportion rate of business actors with neighboring copyrights total
of 5% while the that of music artists increased by <1.5%.
Furthermore, the Korean government approved bypass of 30%
commission fee for all in-app purchases to Google for music
streaming service providers to maintain a sustainable marketplace
in terms of management. Hence, it can be inferred that recent
revisions prosecuted by the government has been more in favor of
business actors, overlooking the internal illness led by the unbalance
of royalty distribution between business actors and music artists.
Adoption of blockchain in the music industry. Despite an
unfruitful path of regulatory actions to achieve fairness in royalty
distribution, experts paid attention to blockchain for its potential
to reshape the system. First introduced by Satoshi Nakamoto in
2008, Blockchain asserted values of transparency, security, and
immutability of data (Nakamoto, 2008). Blocks refer to the saving
unit of user data, and the connection of blocks through the chains
of all participants not only allows for the openness of information
but also the impossibility of data modification without the con-
sent of associated stakeholders (Koh, 2018). It is a digital record-
keeping system that removes the need for third-party
Table 1 The distribution ratio of the streaming income
among stakeholders.
Stakeholders Ratio of music royalty distribution
Production firms 38.6%
Music streaming service provider 35%
Distributor 9.65%
Producer 9.56%
Performer 5.56%
KOMCA 0.95%
FKMP 0.69%
Note: The authors revisited the distribution ratio proposed by KOMCA and developed this table.
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intermediaries who traditionally facilitate a range of essential
transactions (Crosby et al., 2016). The essence of blockchain is
that it decentralizes the management of transactions and uses
cryptography to enable the distributed verification of information
(Swan, 2015). It allows smart contracts among users, including
the security and transparency of data and is expected to increase
the efficiency of the current right management system by cutting
out the intermediaries (Leja et al., 2017). Therefore, the adoption
of blockchain has been visible in multiple industries, including
finance, healthcare, and music. Specifically, there are two revenue
opportunities utilizing the core values of blockchain; disin-
termediation of the music royalty distribution system and a new
revenue channel via NFT.
Disintermediation of royalty distribution. While the music
industry has been facing endemic inequality of the royalty dis-
tribution system, the introduction of blockchain has brought
attention by practitioners due to its latent capability (Tapscott
and Tapscott, 2018). The adoption of blockchain technology has
been regarded as the answer to realize disintermediation of the
distribution system via a direct trade of music between artists and
consumers. Correspondingly, local and global start-ups have been
endeavoring to diffuse new type of streaming service and music
management via blockchain, such as Beat Someone, K-tune, Gala
Music, and Audius.
Blockchain may be a groundbreaking technology in the future
where the core nature of technology may be a noxious existence
to business actors in the music industry. Regardless of
governmental efforts to normalize the royalty distribution system,
multiple revisions of the system have not yet justified nor restored
the righteous amount of proportion to music artists (Hur, 2017;
Kim, 2018). While artists are still trapped in the current system
and unilateral contracts by music streaming service providers, the
disintermediation signifies an escape from the obsolete system
and diminishment of the intermediary value chains of music
between artists and consumers (Lee et al., 2020). In other words,
the elimination of sharing commission fees to firms related to
production, distribution, and music streaming service providers
may significantly enhance share proportions to the original IP
holders, meaning music artists (Baym et al., 2019). The
distribution system can be either simplified by skipping the
intermediary process or developing an independent smart
contract between artists and consumers, performing a direct
interaction through blockchain-based music platforms (Chalmers
et al., 2021; Lee, 2022; Taghdiri, 2019). In short, blockchain may
enable a reconstruction of the current music distribution system.
A new revenue model in the NFT market. The NFT market may
also develop a new possibility for those who are capable of
creating original content. NFT, a non-fungible token, is a digital
asset stored in a blockchain and contains a cryptographic iden-
tification that makes every unit original. It can be any kind of art
form such as a piece of digital photos, videos, and music.
Therefore, artists or production firms that own intellectual
property (IP) can earn profits by selling their commodified IPs in
the NFT market. In other words, the IP holders are able to open a
new revenue channel through the utilization of their IP-based
content. As the identification of digital content authenticity has
become possible, the rarity and ownership of digital content
released by one’s favorite artists have increased the value of the
content (Jung, 2022; Olsson, 2022).
Unfortunately, the global trend to sell NFT as a new form of
music commodity has been facing downturn along with the
speculations of NFT bubbles (Hawkins, 2023). Correlated with
cryptocurrency, the price volatility is evident where the NFT sales
peaked up to $12.6 billion in January 2022 and suddenly dropped
by 60% in 6 months (Guo et al., 2023; Vandergast, 2022). Despite
the rush dynamics of rise and fall of the NFT market, this
research still holds validity due to its fundamental purpose to
investigate the artists’realistic views towards seeking new
opportunities via blockchain.
There is one key requirement that needs to be met for artists to
expect a meaningful outcome in the NFT market: fandom. The
NFT market is primarily based on the participation of a large
fandom because they need herd of consumers who wants to buy
their favorite artists’products and desire ownership of digital IPs
(Olsson, 2022). Famous artists can deliver NFT content and
induce higher participation by fans, creating an interconnected-
ness between themselves and their fans, leading to consistent
interaction within the community and an increase in revenue.
Therefore, the mechanism of the value chain may not include all
artists in the music industry because only a few top-tier artists
enjoy a fandom community while the remaining artists lack such
values. It may be logically true for artists to seek new possibilities
in creating their own NFT content and a new revenue model,
despite the fact that most artists wish to have fans who would
want their digital products.
Theoretical framework. To understand the artists’perspective
towards the possibilities from disintermediation and the NFT
market, this paper utilized the social representation theory (SRT)
as a research framework. First proposed by Émile Durkheim in
1886, the theory was rescued by Serge Moscovici as his doctoral
dissertation in 1961 (Moscovici, 1961). The main point of the
theory is to investigate the common knowledge shared by similar
individuals within a community (Moscovici, 1984). Durkheim
emphasized collective consciousness which minimizes individual
differences and creates a sense of unity, known as collective
representation. Moscovici extracted the idea of collective knowl-
edge to conceptualize social representation, meaning there is a
shared understanding of concepts among individuals who
encounter a similar experience in reality and share a psycholo-
gical commonality, representing a socially commonsense form of
knowledge (Moscovici, 1984; Augoustinos et al., 2006). Knowl-
edge by a group of members is not a reflection of reality but
rather the outcome of a reconstructed reality built via continuous
interaction and communication among members within similar
societal and historical environments. Therefore, the theory has
been widely accepted by scholars as a lens to investigate a com-
munity’s thoughts and attitudes toward a new phenomenon or
objects related to emerging technologies (Choi et al., 2019; Joia
and Vieira, 2021; Jung and Pawlowski, 2014; Na et al., 2023).
For instance, previous scholars have explored the common
understanding of innovative financial technology called fintech
(Choi et al., 2019). As much as it brings convenience and diverse
services to customers in financial businesses, it also follows the
complex understanding among different players in the industry.
The study crawled online news articles published in Korea
containing arguments expressed by major stakeholders such as
financial authorities or Information Technology (IT) companies
and conducted a content analysis with a core-periphery approach
to social representations. Also, as the consumption of virtual
goods in cyberspace has become an essential functionality and
activity of users, the other study investigated the fundamental
understanding of consumer behavior in the social virtual world
with the SRT (Jung and Pawlowski, 2014).
Similar to how practitioners have been accepting SRT to
comprehend emerging technology or social phenomenon,
perceptions about blockchain by professionals were also explored
through the SRT. According to Joia and Vieira (2021), security,
bitcoin, and decentralization were perceived as the core values
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while innovation, data, network, cryptocurrency, and technology
remained as peripheral terms. Furthermore, bitcoin and dis-
sonance were found among the professionals’perceptions of
blockchain. Lastly, the research also realized that experts were not
aware of the potential the technology could have if adopted in
their country, nor the role of the government in such realization
(Joia and Vieira, 2021). Accordingly, this study conducted a
content analysis with a foundation of SRT and a core-periphery
approach to understand the collective thoughts of music artists
with graphical visualization towards the adoption of blockchain
in the music industry. This study also conducted semi-structured
interviews with artists in the local domain to collect data.
Previous research on blockchain in the music industry. Uti-
lizing the SRT framework, this paper focused on discovering the
realistic views on possible outcomes the blockchain can bring to
music artists while previous research was constrained to eluci-
dating expected scenarios within an explorative discourse. Chal-
mers et al. (2021) conducted case studies on ventures which base
their business model on blockchains to elucidate the disin-
termediation of the global music industry. Sitonio and Nucciarelli
(2018) have explored the possible outcomes in the music industry
if blockchain were to be adopted based on the literature review
and secondary data. Baym et al. (2019) provided an in-depth
debate of both positive views and potential challenges of the
techno-utopian solution where the blockchain may introduce
fairness and transparency to music attribution but also ques-
tioned the readiness of society to absorb such technology.
Taghdiri (2019) anticipated resistance from current incumbents
from major business actors such as labels and publishers.
Meanwhile, Tam (2019) raised the question of the causal rela-
tionship between the direct trade between right holders and
consumers and the increase in income, as well as the mechanical
issues during the verification of data regarding information
transparency. Regarding the NFT, there have been concerns
raised regarding the verification of originality of digital art and
lack of standardized system to detact counterfeits (Jung, 2022).
While there is various research that can be used to understand
blockchain in the context of the music industry, the majority of
findings are confined to predictions of possible scenarios
pertaining to the double-sided coin of disruptive technology.
This brings importance to filling in the academic gap by
embracing real-life knowledge from major stakeholders in the
music industry regarding the future. Hence, this study focuses on
discovering how the major stakeholder within the music industry
realistically perceive new possibilities derived from the introduc-
tion of blockchain. Specifically, the authors chose to understand
two new revenue opportunities through the lens of Korean artists
who have been suffering from the outdated and unfair royalty
distribution system and also are the foremost beneficiary when
the adoption of blockchain is actualized. This research will also
observe the experiential views on the realization of the next era of
disruptive innovation through the lens of their understandings,
perceptions, and identities. Therefore, the research questions of
the paper are presented as follows:
RQ1: How do artists perceive the reconstruction of the royalty
distribution system via blockchain technology?
RQ2: How do artists perceive the new revenue channel through
the entrance to the NFT market?
Methodology
Data collection. This study utilizes social representation theory
(SRT) combined with a core-periphery analysis to explore and
visualize the network of music artists’perspectives on new pos-
sibilities derived by adopting blockchain in the music industry.
The authors first defined the targeted group of artists who were to
be interviewed in order to obtain first-hand data and consistency
among the samples. In other words, the interview data needed to
represent the majority of the artist population, and the group of
interviewees needed to be in similar situations such as sharing or
having shared a similar environment and thoughts. The National
Tax Service’s report shows the top 1% tier of music artists
accounts for 53% of the total income of all artists (Cha, 2020). As
such, it may be reasonable to presume that only a few artists are
destined to become a celebrity and earn prosperity, whereas most
producers and performers manage to make a living with extra-
curricular earnings, such as lessons, sales or other music-
irrelevant jobs. Therefore, we deliberately recruited interviewees
who currently have part-time jobs as a supplementary income to
make a living, regardless of one’s original identity as music artists.
The recruitment of participants was conducted through a
multi-method, utilizing the personal network of the author as well
as posting an official announcement on a local online community,
Mule, with its primary users being musicians who seek contract
employment or second-hand trades of instruments. With consent
by every interviewee, the interview was voice-recorded through-
out the whole process to maintain legality and the private
information of interviewees was kept strictly confidential to
preserve anonymity. Consequently, a total of 16 interviewees with
a diverse range of expertise and years in the profession were
recruited for data collection. Majority of artists were independent
singer-songwriter while there also existed composers who
specifically produce instrumental music for K-pop. Years of
profession were calculated by the years accumulated from the
year the artist registered to KOMCA or FKMP. Table 2illustrates
a brief description of each interviewee’s profession in music and
their years of profession.
Semi-structured interviews were conducted to encourage
interviewees with a moderate stimulus of thought development
related to two specific revenue opportunities via blockchain
adoption in the music industry: disintermediation of the royalty
distribution system and a new opportunity from the NFT market.
Content analysis. After the data collection was completed, one of
the researchers first developed a detailed coding of the transcribed
interviews. Deciding on codes for each sample was not pre-
determined but was rather an open coding process, meaning the
procedure to define and determine the codes for each sample
emerged from the continuous debate between coders through
overall data. Throughout multiple discussions, a total of 13 codes
were agreed upon between both coders and were identified to
represent the derived thoughts of the artists. The inter-rater
reliability test - the degree of consensus between coders - showed
92.2%, implying a high level of agreement during the coding
process. Table 3depicts the expected 13 topics which represent
each code and includes empirical examples achieved from the
interviewees.
Core-periphery analysis and visualization of social repre-
sentation. A core-periphery analysis was conducted and a
visualization of social representations with maximum tree design
was developed. The core-periphery model was first proposed by
Borgatti and Everett to identify the structure within the network
(Borgatti and Everett, 2000). Borgatti and Everett (2000) have
developed a statistical software UCINET to unveil a relative
coreness among elements through algorithmic calculations,
dividing them into either core or periphery, within data networks
and indicating associations among themselves with the pre-
sentation of latent centers.
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The authors furthered exploration by visualizing the networks
of core and peripheral elements via mapping the associations
among the 13 topics. An analysis of similarity was conducted to
quantitatively identify relationships among the elements. This
analysis approaches computation of the co-occurrence of textual
data which reveals relationships between topics with similar
semantics (Degenne and Verg’es, 1973). By locating the frequency
of co-occurrence among similar elements, a maximum tree design
was constructed to visually elucidate the social representation
(Degenne and Verg’es, 1973; Jung et al., 2009). The co-occurrence
matrix, indicated by a Jaccard’s similarity coefficient, was then
translated into the inter-attribute similarity (IAS) matrix to
conduct a maximum tree visualization of social representation
(Hammond, 1993). A maximum tree is constructed by connect-
ing the highest salience value of associations between topics, and
continuing the process by selecting the next highest salience value
until all topics are connected, forming one network of social
representation. The coefficients for all connections in terms of an
Table 2 Descriptive information of interviewees.
Interviewee Class Profession Years of profession
1 Performer Singer 8
2 Producer & performer Composer & sessionist 10
3 Producer Composer 5
4 Producer & performer Singer-songwriter 6
5 Producer & performer Singer-songwriter 5
6 Producer & performer Singer-songwriter 4
7 Producer & performer Singer-songwriter 4
8 Producer & performer Singer-songwriter 4
9 Producer & performer Composer & sessionist 10
10 Producer & performer Composer & sessionist 16
11 Performer Singer 8
12 Producer & performer Singer-songwriter 3
13 Producer & performer Singer-songwriter 12
14 Producer Composer 9
15 Producer Composer 6
16 Performer Singer 4
Table 3 Topics in the social representation of blockchain adoption in the music industry.
Code Topics Examples
T1 Opportunity “Adoption of blockchain is perceived as an opportunity for artists.”
T2 Solution for the current royalty distribution
system
“Blockchain may provide minimization of intermediary actors.”
“Blockchain may provide direct interaction between users and artists.”
“Blockchain may provide transparency of the distribution system.”
T3 Infeasibility of disintermediation “I believe disintermediation of the current distribution system is realistically not possible
regardless of blockchain adoption.”
T4 Expected benefits “Stability of music creation may be possible through blockchain.”
“Increase of income is expected through disintermediation and the NFT market.”
“Promotional effect via the NFT market may be helpful as an undiscovered artist.”
T5 Little expectations towards new
possibilities
“Disintermediation will not lead to a significant increase in income.”
“Entrance to the NFT market will only be helpful for celebrities because it is a fandom-based
market.”
T6 Values of current platforms “Artists cannot simply surrender brand values of the current platforms to transfer to the
blockchain-based platforms and gain disintermediation.”
“User pool and promotional effect by current platforms are significant for the artists.”
T7 Values for users “Blockchain-based music services must be able to provide competitive values for all users,
including consumers and artists, to compete with the prominent platforms.”
T8 Protection of copyright “Adoption of blockchain should lead to protection of artists’copyright, transparency of income
distribution, and values of music to provide stability of music creation.”
T9 Unawareness & indifference “Most of the artists, including the public, are not familiar with what exactly the blockchain is and
how it can provide new opportunities in the music industry.”
“The public is not that interested in understanding the issues regarding the royalty distribution in
the music industry.”
T10 Movement by players “Influential players such as music streaming service providers, government, institutes, or famous
celebrities should show a first-mover movement and make it into a market trend to really change
the music industry.”
T11 Prematurity of industry “Despite the technological possibility through blockchain, the local industry is not ready
realistically regarding a small user pool or under-developed infrastructure of blockchain-based
platforms.”
T12 Ingrained sufferings “The production cost and efforts the artists go through is hardly paid back by income”“The current
royalty distribution system is unjust and lets down artists to continue music creation.”
T13 Intensification of polarization “New possibilities the blockchain can bring to the music industry will intensify polarity between
ordinary artists and celebrities.”
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inter-attribute similarity (IAS) matrix can be found in shared files
explained at Data Availability at the end of the article.
Results
The result of the content analysis indicated 13 topics that illus-
trate social representations of Korean artists regarding the new
possibilities in the music industry through blockchain. Table 4
explicates a quantified coreness for each topic. Top three topics
were classified as cores (concentration =0.977) and the remain-
ing eleven as periphery. The core topics are Opportunity (T1),
Infeasibility of disintermediation (T3), and Expected benefits
(T4). Figure 1 shows the social representation map illustrating the
artists’common understanding of the new possibilities derived by
blockchain in the local music industry.
Discussion
As visualized on the maximum tree design (Fig. 1), the social
representation map demonstrates a roadmap of perception by
Korean artists towards the new revenue opportunities derived by
adoption of blockchain in the music industry. Specifically, two
distinctive perceptions were identified: expectations of new
opportunities in the music industry and skepticism of a new
future in reality. While artists perceived blockchain as an
opportunity to discover new era in the music industry, they were
also skeptical towards the near future due to the recognition of
the reality. In this section, the authors interpret two contradictory
understandings with a comprehensive discussion throughout the
journey of the social representation map.
Perceived expectations of new opportunities through block-
chain. There are several positive recognitions towards the adop-
tion of blockchain in the music industry. A similarity between
core attributes, Opportunities (T1) and Expected benefits (T4),
elucidates a solid belief in seeking new hope through this inno-
vative technology. Interviewee 2 demonstrated how one’s identity
as an ordinary music artist views new possibilities rising from the
adoption of blockchain in the music industry.
“The distributors and music streaming platforms are taking
too much share just by delivering music to consumers,
while we are the ones who create music. I believe removal
of intermediaries through disintermediation may not only
increase financial income but also the value of music itself.
Fundamentally, I wish a new era would come via
blockchain where our creations are much more appreciated
and rewarded properly based on its musical value.”
Correspondingly, the majority of artists sought a betterment in
financial income through disintermediation of the current royalty
distribution structure. Ultimately, they urged for a proper
appreciation and return for musical values and a stable
environment to maintain professional careers. Furthermore,
artists perceived that selling their own NFT content would be a
new way to gain exposure among a new user pool and increase
opportunities to meet potential listeners. Throughout the inter-
view, it was noticeable that artists were deeply motivated by
witnessing the audience listening to and enjoying their music. Not
only it would assist in overcoming the income hardship with
more streaming, but as an entertainer, artists also felt alive when
their creation is enjoyed by the public - something vital to the
continuance of their careers.
Protection of copyright (T8) also showed a connection with
Expected benefits (T4) and Solution for the current system (T2).
In other words, artists not only expected revenue benefits but also
felt the need to reinforce the fundamental rights to their creations
through new possibilities emerging from blockchain. They raised
opinions about the unfairness of the current royalty distribution
system leading to the unbalanced royalty share between
themselves and business actors. Interviewee 10 addressed the
need of blockchain to restore artists’copyrights within the
Table 4 Coreness of each topic.
Topics Coreness
T1 Opportunity 0.774
T3 Infeasibility of disintermediation 0.466
T4 Expected benefits 0.345
T5 Little expectations towards new possibilities 0.217
T10 Movement by players 0.079
T12 Ingrained sufferings 0.061
T9 Unawareness & indifference 0.050
T8 Protection of copyright 0.041
T2 Solution for the current royalty distribution system 0.032
T7 Values for users 0.030
T6 Values of current platforms 0.024
T13 Intensification of polarization 0.011
T11 Prematurity of industry 0.008
Note: Core elements are shaded on the social representation map.
Fig. 1 Social representation map of Korean artists towards new possibilities through blockchain.
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realistic perspective towards the persisting system in the Korean
music industry.
“Despite 20 years of the fixated system by business actors
within the Korean music industry, I believe this must be
fixed for the next generation of musicians, and blockchain
may be the way to go. It will be a long journey though, to
convince transparency in streaming data provided by
business actors. Also, I do not even trust KOMCA because
they may be related with the term revisions which had little
to do with the artists, but much favored the business
actors.”
Interestingly, the artists connected the unfairness of the royalty
distribution to discontent and distrust with the role of copyright
institutes. Furthermore, music streaming service providers had
hardly ever provided any transparent information detailing how
often music is consumed by users nor how the streaming income
is distributed with other stakeholders.
Overall, artists have been facing a degree of violation and no
copyright protection as early as they started making music.
Therefore, they believe blockchain can reconstruct the current
system and restore their rights via the openness of information
and direct interactions with consumers without an intermediary.
A strong connection between the Solution for the current system
(T2) and Ingrained sufferings (T12) reiterates the urgent desire to
escape from the obsolete system pertaining to the local domain.
Artists have persistently voiced that the platforms responsible for
providing back-end streaming services to consumers garner an
excessive share of royalties. The findings implicate that the
significant role of music artists and their innocent sufferings are
overlooked by the local industry raised by the unbalanced royalty
share. Artists have been consistently fighting with a feeling of loss
and lack of motivation to maintain their professions due to futile
royalty income compared to their contribution in labor, time, and
money to produce original music.
Perceived skepticisms towards new opportunities. Regardless of
positive perspectives towards blockchain by Korean artists,
Opportunity (T1) exhibited a peculiar connection to Infeasibility
of disintermediation (T3), demonstrating a contradictory rela-
tionship between two perceptions. As much as the artists believed
that the adoption of blockchain in the music industry could create
potential ground for new opportunities, they also held a cynical
view regarding the actualization of the next paradigm in a realistic
context. A number of artists interviewed mentioned the unlike-
liness of disintermediation related to the fixated system developed
during the early age of digitization by business actors. Although
there have been multiple revisions of distribution by the gov-
ernment, the fundamental issue regarding royalty distribution
appreciating a considerable amount of income share to the music
streaming service providers still exists. Therefore, most artists
believed that disintermediation will be possible only when the
influential players come forward to adopt blockchain technology
(T10) and lead a transition to a sustainable ecosystem for both
artists and business actors. Influential players include the music
streaming service providers, celebrities, and the government who
have the power to trigger and fortify the industrial movement and
publicize the reconstruction of the music industry. Of all, the
willingness of business actors to surrender some of their shares
and cooperate with progressive stages of disintermediation is a
critical factor in meeting new possibilities through blockchain.
Interviewee 3 specifically illustrated the need for participation by
business actors to realize disintermediation.
“Emergent blockchain-based start-ups may not hold
enough values to fight original platforms. They have
weaknesses in multiple dimensions for both consumers
and artists, such as lack of competitiveness in music library,
usability of service, and the user pool to promote music.
Disintermediation may be only realized through investment
by sponsors and cooperation with leading business actors.
Such movement shall also be supported by the government
to convince reallocation of royalty shares.”
Figure 1also stressed the significance of Values for users (T7)
who would use blockchain-based services along with the active
movement by players (T10). Artists believed that the current
status of emerging start-ups lacks critical values dedicated to
users, including both consumers and artists, compared to those
provided by current music streaming services (T6). Specifically,
from a consumer’s perspective, blockchain-based streaming
service is inevitably short on competitiveness in delivering music
libraries because only a limited number of artists have uploaded
their music on the infant channel. The price value the consumers
earn from the blockchain-based services is not aggressive enough
to surpass that of leading players who provide unlimited
streaming counts of the mature music library. Furthermore, from
the artists’perspective, they were concerned with losing the
critical values current music streaming service providers can
offer, such as the brand values of named charts, accessibility to a
larger user pool, and promotional features. They believed that the
chance to gain more exposure and a larger audience was crucial to
achieving positive outcomes than betting on new opportunities
via blockchain. In fact, artists considered this to be even more
significant than the switching costs they will likely face during the
transition to blockchain-based platforms. This all led to the
fundamental problem of the blockchain-based music industry
that mostly consisted of start-ups, it is still at an infant or
premature level (T11) in terms of technology and the user pool,
compared to mature infrastructure organized by the current
music streaming industry.
Extending to the other perceptive path, little expectations of
new possibilities (T5) acted as a bridge between Infeasibility of
disintermediation (T3) and Unawareness and indifference (T9).
Not only did the artists believe that these new opportunities were
realistically unlikely, but they also did not expect meaningful
outcomes or benefits through the realization of disintermediation
or entrance to the NFT market. Little expectations on new
possibilities (T5) were also linked with the Intensification of
polarization (T13), following the belief that the NFT market will
provide greater benefits to those who own fandom culture,
exasperating the bipolarity between celebrities and ordinary
artists. Paradoxically, artists were also desperate and willing to
gain even the slightest chance to increase their financial income
and achieve stability in music creation, regardless of the
possibility that the prevailing polarity in the current system
may intensify. Interviewee 2 explained honest feelings towards
open possibilities via blockchain.
“Idofigure the NFT market will definitely intensify the gap
of income levels between us and the celebrities. But
honestly, as long as I can earn just a little more, such a
phenomenon is not my concern. Bipolarity has been pre-
existing for decades anyway. It is perceived more as a relief
to have an extra income channel considering my financial
status.”
Furthermore, the artists believed in the existence of Unaware-
ness and indifference (T9), acting as an obstacle to the new
paradigm. According to years of experience, artists realized that
there exists lack of public awareness regarding the hardship and
instability most artists suffer. Artists believed that the public tends
to perceive music artists with generalized identifications of
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celebrities, leading to an apathy towards their wellbeing. Because
famous artists are what the most public encounter on media, it is
hard for the public to notice ingrained sufferings faced by the
dominant group of artists who manage to make a living. Lack of
public interest and sympathy for artists may be a critical burden
to realize the need to reconstruct the music royalty distribution
system. The public attention is imperative to bringing the
unfairness of the decade-old system to light and thus alleviating
artists’continuous hardship.
Additionally, artists shared a commonality in that they were
not completely aware of what exactly blockchain is nor the
potential it could have in the music industry. This reflects the fact
that the definition of blockchain is complex and difficult to
understand due to the lack of a publicized definition the general
population can discern, hampering people’s understanding of
how it can lead to other opportunities for the industry. Moreover,
artists tended to associate blockchain with cryptocurrency, which
is one of the major derivatives among multiple possibilities. There
is an overgeneralization of blockchain which alludes to instability
and uncertainty pertaining to the technology itself. Additionally,
the cryptocurrency market has been facing downhill since its
highest peak in 2021, demonstrated by Bitcoin and other major
virtual assets. This is in line with the crypto winter after the
bubble burst in the NFT market which also may have affected
artists’perceptions as well. Therefore, artists speculated the
possibility of a co-relationship between the insecurity of the
cryptocurrency market and an unconscious resistance to invest-
ing in the NFT.
Conclusion and implications
This paper sought to understand the new revenue opportunities
blockchain can provide to the music industry through the lens of
Korean artists. Prior studies have approached the discussion of
blockchain within the digital music industry with either idealistic
expectations or possible challenges, constrained to explorative
discourse. This research contributes by recruiting major stake-
holders as interviewees and utilizing empirical data to observe the
realistic perspectives towards such possibilities. It employed the
SRT as a theoretical framework to discover the collective
understanding of Korean artists and discovered that the realistic
recognition of the adoption of blockchain in the music industry is
ambivalent - hoping for new opportunities while also perceiving
the impracticality of such innovation. Indeed, it may be too good
to be true for artists who have observed the local domain with
little change regardless of their continuous voice for help. SRT’s
contribution to this paper may be summarized as follows. First,
SRT could provide the theoretical framework and method for this
exploratory study of the feelings and thoughts evoked by a par-
ticular technology among the general people who were previously
unfamiliar with it (Na et al., 2023). Second, SRT was helpful to
understand the knowledge of occupational communities from
their perspectives (Pawlowski et al., 2007). Third, the structural
model of SRT enabled the researchers to clarify the cognitive
structures of social representations, which consist of core and
peripheral elements (Rateau et al., 2011). Accordingly, SRT
contributes to this paper by providing a (core-periphery)
structure-based explanation, which enables a richer interpretation
of the social representation map.
This paper provides academic contributions by unveiling rea-
listic barriers the artists perceive regarding the feasibility of the
next music industry with blockchain. The paper filled a vacancy
by revealing empirical findings about how the related stake-
holders within the ecosystem perceive disruptive technology
according to their experiential perspective. Further, the research
provides future guidance to study the adoption of blockchain in
the music industry from multiple perspectives. Expanding the
boundaries of interviewees may be critical to understanding the
different stakeholders within the music royalty distribution sys-
tem such as business actors, including music streaming service
providers, production firms, or distributors. Also, institutes
managing the artists’copyright may elucidate different views
regarding the transparency of information and unfairness of
royalty shares within the system in respect of their identities.
This paper also provides practical implications for stakeholders in
the local music industry, as well as for the government. First, the
findings suggest that artists do not believe in the disintermediation
without the participation of influential players. Regardless of mul-
tiple start-ups already emerging in the local scene, their growth and
success inevitably encounter realistic constraints without the help of
leading actors (Woo, 2022). Hence, it is critical for the start-ups to
find the unmet needs which can be delivered to the current music
streaming service providers via blockchain technology to induce
their voluntary investment.
Secondly, the engagement of the government to develop a
sustainable environment for both business actors and artists shall
be supportive but also minimal. For instance, the growth of
blockchain technology and its industry may be accomplished by
deregulation. Regulatory barriers can be an unnecessary hurdle to
encourage innovations to businesses. Therefore, regulatory sand-
boxes shall be offered to experiment services without a compliance
to local laws. Freedom of conducting test beds without bureau-
cratic obstacles may attract investment of capitals and foster
healthy competitions. Also, fundamental research on case studies
from other countries with a developed music scene is advised prior
to revisiting the music royalty distribution terms. A navigation to
reform fixated legislations will not only require long term per-
sistence but also extensive knowledges to undergo reconstruction
all stakeholders can consent. Thus, the government can learn
insight via research on the case from the United States where the
Copyright Royalty Board has accepted to increase songwriter’s
royalty rates up to 15.35% by 2027 (Ingham, 2022). Also, Ger-
many established the Music Modernization Act in 2016 to update
copyright laws concerning transparency and royalty payments in
music streaming services. It may be helpful to scrutinize the
processes and results of external examples which revisited the
music royalty distribution system to protect the artists and
benchmark the critical findings into Korean context.
This paper is not without limitations. First, the research was
limited to a Korean context. Regardless of the global recognition
of unfairness in music royalty distribution, the research on the
Korean digital music industry should be considered a unique case
study with vertical integration by business actors. Therefore, the
social representation of artists may vary according to countries
with different cultures and different music industry histories.
Furthermore, the research focused on the perspectives of one
stakeholder. Business actors, such as music streaming service
providers, production firms, or distributors may also perceive the
adoption of blockchain from different perspectives. Managers
from copyright institutes may be well aware of the history of
revisions of the royalty distribution system, which may also bring
new insights to attempt the radical transition through blockchain.
The comparison of multiple social representations is a promising
future research that can help figure out essential needs or dis-
agreements pertaining to new possibilities. Such findings may
contribute to a detailed development stage of a sustainable music
industry with blockchain. Lastly, the paper did not conduct
longitudinal analysis due to a limited data. As much as the
blockchain has been radically rising as an innovative technology,
the understanding towards such technology can also alter in short
period of time affected by the change of environment or degree of
technological adoption in certain industries. Thus, tracking
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dynamics of social representations towards adoption of block-
chain may be a necessary topic to better understand realistic
status of next paradigm shift.
Data availability
The data from 16 interviews are summarized in the article and
supplementary material, further inquiries into interview data can
be directed to the corresponding author. The corresponding
author will provide the data on request. Please understand that all
data are in Korean-language.
Received: 15 September 2023; Accepted: 10 January 2024;
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea, the
National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF- 2019S1A3A2099973), and the MSIT
(Ministry of Science and ICT) Korea, under the ITRC (Information Technology Research
Center) support program (IITP-2023-2020-0-01749) supervised by the IITP (Institute of
Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation).
ARTICLE HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES COMMUNICATIONS | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-02657-7
10 HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES COMMUNICATIONS | (2024) 11:161 | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-02657-7
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Author contributions
All authors participated in designing the research and were involved in subsequent
revisions. The first author performed interviews with 16 interviewees, analyzed the data,
and interpreted the results. The second author participated in determining the metho-
dology, discussing significant findings, and extracting implications.
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Ethical approval
The interviews conducted were determined exempt by the Institutional Review Board of
Korea University.
Informed consent
The first author obtained informed consent from each of 16 interviewees before he
performed interviews with them.
Additional information
Supplementary information The online version contains supplementary material
available at https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-02657-7.
Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to Seongcheol Kim.
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