Surround, the music and entertainment division of Bitfury, is announcing a recent investment in and partnership with Vezt, the mobile app that allows fans to participate in the royalties of their favorite songs - allowing artists, songwriters, producers, labels and publishers to immediately monetize their work in a meaningful way. Vezt will be a cornerstone in the Surround marketplace launching later this year. 

The deal strengthens key elements long missing in the music industry. Surround is building a marketplace for asset management and music IP using a suite of technologies that includes AI and blockchain, where artists, labels, publishers, CMOs, and other music stakeholders can distribute assets, track payments, and engage with innovative new products and platforms, all in a highly secure, radically more efficient way. Vezt will be a vital partner in this ecosystem, offering creatives helpful means to finance important projects by enabling fans and supporters to invest directly in their creative output.

“Artists, managers, and labels struggle with transparency, efficiency, and liquidity as things stand in the music business,” Surround CEO Stefan Schulz says. “Surround provides the foundational data layer that’s the rock of Gibraltar. On top, we’re creating an artist-readable layer that fits into a musician or music professional’s day-to-day workflow and makes important tasks easy. The liquidity part is what Vezt is bringing to the table, as artists and labels are struggling to bring liquidity to their assets.” 

“The business of music is changing very rapidly, and we recognize the importance of providing a transparent and efficient compensation method that will benefit artists and creators worldwide, in a way never seen before,” notes Robert Menendez, Co-founder and COO of Vezt. “The connection between artists and their fans will be much stronger going forward.” 

“The creator side has been disintermediated, and technology is now bringing it back,” reflects Schulz. “This connection is usually only happening live or via performance, but it’s happening now on the recorded side, as well, thanks to Vezt.”

Vezt has already helped a number of established and emerging artists monetize their rights to ensure creative independence and financial stability. Featuring rights in songs recorded by the likes of Jay-Z, Lil’ Wayne, Maroon 5, Nipsey Hussle, Panic At The Disco, The Weeknd, John Legend, Mary J. Blige, and hundreds more, Vezt launched in both the Apple and Google app stores 18 months ago. Surround is currently working with select artists and securing partnerships with music technology companies for their beta launch later this year, with a full public launch slated for Q1 2021.

About Surround

Bitfury Surround was founded in January 2019 and is the music and entertainment unit of the Bitfury Group, the largest and most innovative global company in the cryptocurrency and blockchain space. It tackles the challenges of artists and other stakeholders in the music industry. The Surround platform is a fully interoperable digital ecosystem for the exchange and monetization of copyrights. It will improve economic opportunities for the entire music industry by providing multiple blockchain-based management services, including the secure transfer of copyright assets. Surround’s goal is to significantly increase the value of copyrights and strengthen trust, transparency and efficiency in the industry. www.surround.com

About Vezt

Vezt is the first mobile app where music fans can share royalty rights for songs and recordings by artists they love. We exist to improve the music industry by providing artists, songwriters, and producers with funding sourced directly from their fans on a global basis. In exchange, fans get the right to receive royalties earned by their favorite songs and recordings. Vezt collects these royalties on behalf of fans from performing rights organizations, publishers and record labels and tracks such royalties through proprietary blockchain technology. www.vezt.co

Bitfury Surround, the music and entertainment blockchain ecosystem, has brought on experienced music and tech executive Fabian Alsultany as its first North American hire. Alsultany will work with Surround’s Berlin-based team to lay the groundwork for a new approach to music rights management and creativity in the US and Canada. Surround is the music and entertainment arm of Bitfury, the Amsterdam-based innovative global technology company.

Alsultany’s experience has spanned music, live events, emerging tech, and wellness. He has been working in the music industry for over 25 years. He most recently served as Director of Business Development for the blockchain platform, RChain Cooperative, where he focused on the development of music technologies related to the future of streaming, micropayments, and digital identity. As VP of Programming for Wanderlust Festivals, he curated seven weekend-long festivals and 40 single-day events in top urban markets to an estimated total audience of over 150,000 people. He served as the lead business advisor for the largest concert in the history of Cuba, with 450,000 people arriving to see Major Lazer. Alsultany has served in executive positions at Palm Pictures as Director of A&R, alongside industry legend Chris Blackwell (Island Records, Bob Marley, U2) and with Putumayo World Music as Director of Festivals & Tours. He founded and produced the 2012 Tadasana Festival of Yoga and Music in Santa Monica in partnership with Kevin Wall (LiveAid, Live Earth) and has toured internationally as a DJ and musician, releasing multiple albums as an artist and producer. 

“I’m excited to join Bitfury Surround. As the company’s first US hire, I’ll be leading all North American initiatives as Director of Business Development North America,” he says, running operations from Los Angeles. “Our platform will significantly change the way artists and their teams get paid. The market for music, videos, tickets, stems, digital collectibles, and digital assets is receiving a significant upgrade. Bitfury Surround will allow the creative forces in the entertainment industry to maximize revenue and ensure payment distribution in an innovative manner. The software stack and marketplace we are creating will be a game-changer to everyone in the music and entertainment ecosystem.”

“Fabian will play a crucial role in guiding our strategy in North America, a key market for Surround,” says Stefan Schulz, CEO and co-founder of Surround. “His expertise in music and blockchain will prove invaluable as we roll out what we believe will be a transformative technology for music creators and stakeholders.” 

About Surround

Bitfury Surround was founded in January 2019 and is the music & entertainment unit of the Bitfury Group, the largest and most innovative global company in the cryptocurrency and blockchain space. It tackles the challenges of artists and other stakeholders in the music industry. 

The Surround platform is a fully interoperable digital ecosystem for the exchange and monetization of copyrights. It will improve economic opportunities for the entire music industry by providing multiple blockchain-based management services, including the secure transfer of copyright assets. Surround’s goal is to significantly increase the value of copyrights and strengthen trust, transparency, and efficiency in the industry.

The music industry needs its own version of aviation’s black box flight recorders: something reliable and indestructible that records every move, something you can turn to when trouble strikes. That’s why leading emerging technologies company Bitfury Group is developing Surround, a new blockchain-based ecosystem for developers and music professionals. 

“No one is looking for an accurate recording of what happened until there’s a problem,” says Stefan Schulz, major label veteran and Surround CEO. “Until now, going back and trying to figure out what’s correct, whether it is copyright infringement and a royalties issue, would have been extremely costly, or simply impossible. Blockchain changes that.”

Blockchain records transactions as they happen in immutable form. For music, that means every stream and every purchase is recorded and timestamped at the moment it occurs. This may not sound that revolutionary, but it is: the industry has been depending on digital service providers, for example, to generate the number of streams per track (a crucial metric in business decision making and royalty payouts). Yet these numbers are only available after significant delays and are rife with discrepancies. Blockchain can uncover these errors and inconsistencies. It can also form the basis for a wide range of data-intensive transactions and creative initiatives with the potential to empower artists and unleash new and faster revenue. 

To unlock blockchain’s full potential for the industry, Surround is designing an ecosystem where APIs, software products, and new applications can flourish. “We’re building an API that delivers the functionality for companies and individuals in the music industry, including user authentication/know your customers, reporting engines, licensing, and metadata management,” explains Surround CTO Alexandr Shevchenko. “On top of this functionality, we’re creating sample products like an artist dashboard, where artists and their teams can see how copyrights are performing at the moment. Once Surround launches fully, there will eventually be lots of different APIs on the platform, and a lot of products on top of the APIs created by third-party developers.” “We’re looking first and foremost to connect and facilitate,” adds Schulz.

The possibilities for blockchain in the music industry are rich but potentially overwhelming. Surround can handle a whopping 100,000 transactions per second and then translate that data into human-readable interfaces, analysis, and predictive guidance. Using some basic content, such as an audio file, lyrics, and/or artwork, Surround will be able to document a track, connect to all contributing artists, and set up revenue splits for collaborators that are implemented only if all parties agree. Once an agreement is set, you can prove at any given time, in any given country, that a song was yours at this specific date. “Clearing all IP on a music track to prove ownership can take even major label teams months,” notes Schulz. “That’s months of views you can’t monetize.” 

While these features promise to improve efficiency and transparency, the real excitement of blockchain comes from the yet undiscovered applications that can provide new revenues for artists, labels, and publishers. Surround’s non-fungible tokens (NFTs), for example, could inspire new, intriguing approaches to fan engagement and ticketing. “There’s a lot of room for creativity, to spark imagination and come up with new ideas,” says Shevchenko. “Surround NFTs can be used for crypto ticketing. They can let you create digital collectibles or non-transferrable super deluxe versions of albums issued to a named individual.” These collectibles can be used to create interactive connections with fans, as well as reward dedicated followers. 

One key dynamic in Surround’s approach to transforming the music industry is incentivizing the hurdles music professionals face. That includes making it worthwhile for every stakeholder to deal effectively with metadata and other betes noires of the business. “Rights management isn’t the solution. You’re asking for people to do more work, with no clear or immediate payout,” reflects Schulz. “Instead, you have to solve this commercially, by giving people the business incentive to fix the problem.” Part of this incentive stems from Surround’s payment system, which will allow artists to receive payouts quickly from verified partners on Surround’s marketplace, directly into their secure wallets. All stakeholders will be able to receive payment in Bitcoin, US dollars, Euros, or their local currency of choice. 

Transparency can be a market outcome, changing the game from one in which everyone is upset and disappointed, to a win-win for music users and music providers. This black box recorder-like transparency will be baked into every Surround block, letting artists see clearly what’s working, what they’re due, and what they should try next. “We’re creating the means,” Schulz says. “We’re letting people do business how they wish, but with full interoperability. That means more freedom and more opportunity.” 

About Surround 

Bitfury Surround was founded in January 2019 and is the music & entertainment unit of the Bitfury Group, the largest and most innovative global company in the cryptocurrency and blockchain space. It tackles the challenges of artists and other stakeholders in the music industry. 

The Surround platform is a fully interoperable digital ecosystem for the exchange and monetization of copyrights. It will improve economic opportunities for the entire music industry by providing multiple blockchain-based management services, including the secure transfer of copyright assets. Surround’s goal is to significantly increase the value of copyrights and strengthen trust, transparency and efficiency in the industry.