Interview with a Pro – Clay Hawkins on OME (Open Music Exchange)

January 15, 2024

Making a Scene Presents an Interview with a Pro – Clay Hawkins of

Introduction

It is no secret that the current revenue from streaming services like spotify/youtube/pandora, etc. is not sustainable as a business model for the music industry. The Digital Revolution has however proven to be very fluid when it comes to new platforms upsetting the status quo. Napster took over from Limewire, ITunes took over from Napster, Spotify Took Over for Itunes, etc. It seems that every 5 or so years something new comes along and the consumer adopts this new technology and leaves what was once thought to be a dominating force in the music industry by the wayside. This trend is due to repeat itself once again with the adoption of blockchain technology to deliver content and streaming services (See “How The Blockchain is Revolutionizing Content Distribution“). One of the biggest hurtles of this new technology is the fact that the consumer really does not want to deal with the complexities of dealing with the crypto world, like having to create crypto wallets, Smart Contracts, NFT’s, etc. OME is working towards creating a frontend to their new platform for the indie artist to isolate the consumer from the issues of the crypto world making a adoption of this technology an easier move for the music consumer and indie artist to negotiate.

What is OME

OME is Founded by professional musician and CEO Clay Hawkins, The goal of OME is to give ownership and control of music back to musicians and fans by taking advantage of the crypto technology that gave is blockchain and NFT marketplaces and media platforms. The OME platform, which is currently live as a BETA development and testing stage. This will enable musicians to mint their songs as NFTs *(Non Fungible Tokens) and sell them directly to fans. The platform is designed to be community-led, such that the blockchain is a decentralized technology musicians and music enthusiasts will be able to drive the direction of OME going forward. This will includes full music and media streaming, allowing users to manage, catalogue, and access their favourite music through NFT collections.

Problem: The current music streaming paradigm has created a centralized marketplace where most of the wealth generated by music is funneled into corporations. This robs the world of the real economic power of music.

Solution:

1. Create a new streaming marketplace for music, where artists can tokenize the access to their music into NFTs that can be sold to fans at rates and quantities they decide. By allowing musicians to become their own ‘record labels’ and providing them with a marketplace, artists can finally have control over the access to and distribution of their music.

2. Create a token economy built around the value of music sold on the platform that both artists and fans can utilize to interact, build community and generate new revenue streams. This will reorganize how music is monetized and will spread the value of the song to both the creators and their supporters.

OME is revolutionizing the music industry by giving creative control back to artists. Through OME’s platform, artists gain the unique ability to determine access and pricing for their music, shows, and other content. By leveraging NFT and blockchain technology (see Indie Artist Guide to NFTs, How the Blockchain is Revolutionizing Content Distribution) OME allows artists to create content at no cost, priced as they see fit, while retaining 96% of all profits. Stop giving your music away for pennies! Join us in bringing the earning power of music back where it belongs – with the artists. This is OME.

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About Clay Hawkins

Blending rapid-fire finger style slide guitar and honest, heartfelt songwriting, Clay Hawkins creates his own unique brand of acoustic rock. Influences like Neil Young, John Fahey, The Black Keys, Nick Cave and even Radiohead come together behind a well worn yet lush vocal style. Clay’s music unfolds naturally, taking the listener on a ride that is entirely his own.

As far as his “story” goes, well that began in Phoenix, AZ…

Born into a household of professional rodeo cowboys (truly) it wasn’t immediately obvious that music would be the chosen path. But the nights spent on the road, listening to country music, (when it was still good) on the way to the next town made an impression. Since carrying a guitar around is a lot easier than hauling horses…, maybe there was something floating in the dust all along.

Fast forward to the discovery of guitars, classic rock and the life sustaining qualities of coffee and a warm smile. It was all uphill from there. Eventually all roads led out of town. Clay refined and supported his new songwriting habit up and down both coasts, across Europe, in and out of clubs, cafes, street corners, bars, barns, back yards and back alleys. Hanging his hat in New Orleans and then San Francisco, he listened and turned the sound echoing in those halls into the basis of the music he makes now. What he calls, “Late Night, Boot Stomping, Road Music from the Heart”.
That road became home, and eventually the wild hills of Northern California claimed another as their own. With a rolling band of co-conspiritors, an assortment of slide guitars, old amps and a great affection for good times, (and a dog), Clay spends his days playing music around California and taking it one mile marker at a time.

He still doesn’t own a horse though.

Conclusion

The music industry is on the verge of a complete transformation and a radical shift away from the middleman and record agencies that have up to this point dominated distribution, control, and profits. There is a trend towards moving the business model towards a decentralized system that deepens the Artist to Fan connection, and moves the revenue model from Fan-record companies-middle men-platforms-Artist to a direct Fan to Artist revenue stream. Using the Blockchain as an engine in the background to monetize music and decentralized the industry for the indie artist as well as using NFT technology to provide a vehicle to provide a variety of unique content for the fan experience could very well be the new music business is headed. The Key is going to be are you able to get into the ground floor of these technologies as they develop. The fact that OME is free for the artist and for the fan to participate as well as the fact that they will work with hard currency as opposed to a crypto currency system makes them worthy of checking out.

I highly recommend checking them out, at the very lease signing up with them and putting your music/merchandise for sale on their platform since it is free to use for indie artists is a no brainer. If you are even more inclined, they released a share sale through Chainraise (An Investing platform for Next Gen Companies) funding platform.

WBDC Clay Hawkins OME from West Business Development Center on Vimeo.

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