![enter image description here](https://i.imgur.com/N81u9P7.png) I've been trying to make a living with music for many years. I've recorded albums, been on tour, performed in festivals in front of audiences of thousands of people, I've created soundtracks for theater plays and television programs and I've appeared in a few television shows as well as radio.

https://i.imgur.com/KqTYOBW.jpg

To this day the only thing that has allowed me to have an income as a musician is busking. It is pretty heartbreaking, honestly. I am a trained musician and audio producer but the only way in which I can currently put food on the table is by going out on the streets and playing music in front of people who did not ask for me to do it and in some cases might dislike it. I have an interest in researching things I'm interested in and finding out how things work, so I've spent many hours reading and learning everything I can about the music industry. A False Promise Of Decentralization ----------------------------------- Being a millennial I grew up with great expectations of what the Internet would do for musicians; we were promised a great process of democratization in which anyone from anywhere in the world could upload their music to the Interwebs and reach millions of fans directly, free from the centralized tyranny of record labels. However, today the music industry appears to be *more* centralized than ever. Just a tiny amount of artists make all the money while the rest of musicians are left to starve. Every pathway into success is blocked by countless of **gatekeepers** whose tyrannical decrees give platform to the unimaginative, the bland and the outright obscene while pushing back into the shadows the profound, the sublime and the uplifting. Everything about the industry is conceived to benefit the same old players. Labels sign young acts only to have their albums collecting dust without ever seeing the day of light. This is their way of keeping competition away from their "main acts"; a *very* vile way that is. Same Problem, Same Solution --------------------------- I firmly believe that **centralization** and **monopolies** of all kind are the source of most of the world's problems. Whenever there is centralization there is a tiny elite of people reaping all the benefits while the majority suffers, This is the case industries of any kind, with central banking and government. The only way to change things for the better or, in the words of Danearys Targarean, to 'break the wheel' is to make centralization impossible. And the only way to do that is through the blockchain. People got used to not paying for music, just like they did to not paying for porn. It's just something that you don't do anymore. But people love to upvote! The Steem blockchain provides an incredible opportunity for artists and record labels to publish their music and for music fans to support their favorite artists without having to pay for their music. Maybe new artist-specific tokens can be created for bands to raise funds and for people to profit from the success of their favorite artists! And all of this in a decentralized way, through a blockchain. I don't know how the future of the industry will look like, but I hope that the same winds of change that are bringing terror to statists and central bankers everywhere soon bring the same fear to the pestilent rotting corpse that is the old centralized music industry. **Photo credits to my amazing girlfriend Exy! For more awesome photography from her follow her [Instagram page here.](http://instagram.com/exximo)**