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Gareth Emery opens up about blockchain streaming service Choon (Includes interview)

Emery is the co-founder Choon, which is a disruptive blockchain-based music streaming service which is looking to take on the likes of Spotify and Apple Music. “It is a passion project for me,” he said. “I have been in the industry for nearly 20 years, and it always killed me how unjust royalty payments are. We have this system that never really got adapted for digital age. A lot of people think there is not much money is streaming music, and there is. It just goes to the wrong people. All of the money goes to Spotify or Pandora or Tidal, or other publishers, so as an artist it is really hard to make money.

He continued, “I’ve always wanted to try to find a fix or that. When I got into cryptocurrency and blockchain that showed me where the fix was. I was getting into bitcoin early on in 2013. I love the technology and I love the way I could potentially disrupt the financial industry, while seeing the potential in music at that point. When Ethereum happened and the Smart Contracts, I thought that was super cool to build a streaming platform, where payments are completely transparent and they pay royalties every day as opposed to every six months. We’ve spent the last six months building it, and we are two weeks old now.”

Aside from Emery, he noted that the other co-founders of Choon include John Watkinson, Bjorn Niclas, and Matt Hall. “We have a pretty cool team,” he said.

Choon is designed as a streaming platform, which is aimed at independent artists who are not with a major record label. Its goal is to disrupt Spotify’s dominant industry model by using blockchain technology and Smart Record Contracts. This allows recording artists to keep 80 percent of the revenue from their music, which is an immense contrast to the small revenues they receive with current streaming services. “It is a big passion project for me. So far, it has been crazy. We started with 500 artists and now we have over 1,000 artists,” he said. “We work with artists that own 100 percent of the rights of their music, and we could be much more generous to artists than anybody else could be.”

Many established musical acts (with millions of followers) have already signed up to Choon, and advisors include a mix of blockchain specialists and music industry veterans.

Most recently, Emery released two remixes (Ashley Wallbridge and Ciaran Mcauley) for his endearing, popular track “Long Way Home.” “For me, it was one of the best tracks I’ve ever made,” he admitted. “Those two guys knocked it out of the park.”

He praised singing sensation Haliene for being an “amazing singer,” as well as for her unplugged version of “Saving Light.” “It took us a long time to get that video out, because we wanted the video to be perfect,” he said.

Gareth Emery’s “Long Way Home” remixes are available on iTunes.

To learn more about blockchain-based streaming service Choon, check out its official website.

For more information on global superstar DJ and producer Gareth Emery, visit his homepage.

Markos Papadatos
Written By

Markos Papadatos is Digital Journal's Editor-at-Large for Music News. Papadatos is a Greek-American journalist and educator that has authored over 20,000 original articles over the past 18 years. He has interviewed some of the biggest names in music, entertainment, lifestyle, magic, and sports. He is a 16-time "Best of Long Island" winner, where for three consecutive years (2020, 2021, and 2022), he was honored as the "Best Long Island Personality" in Arts & Entertainment, an honor that has gone to Billy Joel six times.

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