Crypto to pay Music Artists

Kasabian’s Ian Matthews joins forces with tech entrepreneur to overhaul music industry payments to artists

A new technology platform designed to generate long term royalties for artists and venues will be launched this August by Kasabian drummer Ian Matthews and his long-time friend and tech entrepreneur Irfon Watkins.

The technology uses a new cryptocurrency which will generate long term royalty payments to artists. The world-first concept is the culmination of almost two years’ work by the duo following the purchase of the local Chapel in Irfon’s hometown of Llanwrtyd Wells, Wales in 2019. The Chapel building is currently being refurbished and will ultimately be run as a performance venue using the new platform.

Irfon and Ian identified a need to drastically overhaul the way artists are paid appropriately within the music industry, particularly in light of the pandemic which has affected the livelihoods of so many performers and has seen the almost total collapse of the live events sector.

The not-for-profit platform, called CHPL.Live, combines decentralised finance (DeFi*) with non-fungible tokens (NFTs) - digital memories and merchandise which can be traded by fans and gig-goers - to create an ecosystem which enables venues booking artists to monetise content from one-off events. Artists and venues will receive royalties each time their NFTs are traded.

The platform will debut at a one-off community event to be held in Llanwrtyd Wells, Wales on 7th August.

CHPL.Live will enable venue owners to share a percentage of event income generated from ticket sales and other revenue streams linked to performances with booked artists. Venues will be able to deposit a proportion of income from an event into CHPL.Live which then generates additional income through yield farm**, Alchemix.  

The platform will be powered by its own cryptocurrency tokens called CHPL. Tokens will be rewarded to anyone who engages with the platform and anyone holding tokens will have the right to vote on decisions for the platform. A governance council will initially oversee the platform with the intention to move to full decentralisation and community control once the token becomes widely distributed.

Chapel Treasury will initially hold the tokens and will collect fees. 3% of the yield returns will cover development and infrastructure costs.

Co-founder Ian Matthews added: “With declining revenues for venues and artists struggling for many years now to make a living the traditional music industry model needs to change. We have designed the Chapel platform to future proof the industry by creating royalty-based income over time.”

Fellow co-founder Irfon Watkins commented: “I am thrilled to be able to bring together two of my great passions for this project, my love of both technology and music. We are harnessing the latest in technology combined with a decentralised finance model to create a robust business model which will benefit artists, venues and fans alike.”