Empowering artists through tokenization and royalties

Problem

Tune.fm required a DLT that offered configuration and issuance of fungible and non-fungible tokens that ensured fast transaction speeds and low, predictable fees.

Solution

Tune.fm leverages Hedera Token Service (HTS) to issue and manage its $JAM token, enabling per-second micropayments to artists and supporting the minting of NFTs that deliver exclusive content. With HTS, Tune.fm benefits from low-cost token creation, management, and transfers, making real-time micropayments and artist rewards both fast and economically viable.

Tune.fm is excited to launch the JAM token on Hedera Token Service — HTS is the ultimate native token service that will enable us to truly realize our original vision for real-time micropayments at lightning speeds with super low fees.

Andrew Antar

Co-Founder

Traditional streaming platforms are not for the artists

On platforms like Spotify or Pandora, every stream of music represents fractions of a cent, paid by the platform to various master and publishing rights holders and costly intermediaries. On average, collectively, the service providers, labels, and publishers end up taking 90% of the revenue for any given artist. This leaves them with around 10% of streaming revenue that can take anywhere from six months to several years to settle in bank accounts. This is a huge problem in the music industry that has many artists taking back their rights and going independent if they can afford to do so.

To reduce inefficiencies in today’s music streaming market, Tune.fm looked to the various public DLTs that exist today and offer tokenization for fungible and non-fungible assets. They found that tokenization through smart contracts on Ethereum (or comparable blockchains) was economically infeasible, not scalable, and too slow to perform micropayments. Minting and transferring non-fungible tokens is prohibitively expensive on legacy blockchains and smart contracts.

Tokenization brings value to both the music industry and streaming platforms by reducing intermediary costs associated with the transfer of value, ensuring instant remittance, and creating new revenue streams for artists.

Why Hedera

Hedera Token Service (HTS) enables Tune.fm to bypass the limitations of smart contract–based tokenization, offering faster, more cost-efficient issuance and management of its JAM token—reducing settlement times from months to seconds. HTS also empowers artists to unlock new revenue streams by minting NFTs tied to creative works, limited releases, live events, merchandise, and more. Beyond performance, Hedera’s guaranteed finality and enterprise-grade governance provide the stability and trust needed for a global music economy.