SHARE is a protocol built on blockchain that enables creators to choose the price per stream of their audio or video content, distribute the content directly to consumers, make it accessible on any web application, and receive payments instantly when their content is streamed. SHARE has a wide variety of applications including music, video, and podcasts.
The SHARE Protocol (SHARE) is for artists who create premium music experiences. You, the creator, can distribute your music directly to consumers (peer-to-peer) under terms and at a price you choose, and receive payments instantly when the music is streamed. When you specify your access terms to the music, SHARE creates a smart contract and generates a link to the location of the music. Anyone with the link can share it. Each time another user pays for access to the music, you and other owners of the music receive a royalty payment to your wallets.
This article overviews the process to distribute a test song on blockchain by deploying a smart contract using the FORMLESS SHARE Decentralized Application (Formless dApp) and provides example information that you can use to test out the process before making the decision to distribute your own songs using the protocol.
Switch your network to the Polygon Mumbai testnet. When you’re familiarizing yourself with the smart contract creation process, please switch your wallet to the Polygon Mumbai testnet. This will allow you to go through the process without uploading content to mainnet and without spending any actual digital currency. Instead, you’ll use test tokens to create your contracts. Refer to the article Select and set up a digital wallet to start using SHARE for details on how to switch to Polygon Mumbai and obtain test tokens.
Website location. Navigate to https://app.formless.xyz/create in your web browser. Here you’ll see a series of steps where you will input information that is used to create the details of your smart contract.
Song file. Prepare a song file in WAV or MP3 format. If you don't already have a song that you want to use for testing, you can use this demo song file (Credit: Sound Design & Production, Stack Matik @stackmatik).
Creator Name. Enter "TEST NAME". This is the name you use to identify yourself, e.g. your artist name or your real name. This can be anything you choose, for example, you can do things like "KANYE X JAY-Z" if you'd like to list multiple names. Your content ownership is uniquely identified through your blockchain address, not the name entered here.
Title. Enter "TEST TITLE". Similar to the name field, this can be anything you want. The content will be uniquely identified using its smart contract address. This title is purely for display purposes.
Price For Access. Enter “0.25”. This means that listeners will need to pay 25 cents to play your music. The payment won't require them to enter any financial information, it will automatically flow from their wallet on the blockchain seamlessly. In this example, we're using 25 cents, but the beauty of SHARE is that you can set this value to be anything that you want. It can be 0 for free content, or any amount you wish, even $1M if that's what you think it's worth. You know your audience and the worth of your content better than we ever could.
Apple and Google Pay. Select “Enable Apple Pay and Google Pay”. This will allow consumers to purchase access to your music using Apple Pay and Google Pay, and they won’t need to connect a Web3 wallet in order to purchase access to your music. This is an optional feature and is only available for content that is priced equal to or above 17 cents. There are a few additional fees ($.30 + 7.9% of the transaction value) that consumers will have to pay for the convenience of using Apple Pay or Google Pay, but depending on your use case and how you’re pricing your music it may make sense. Read more details about activating Apple Pay and Google Pay.
Access Grant Time. Enter 0 DAY, 0 HOURS, 10 MINUTES. This is the amount of time that the listener will have access to your music after they complete the instant micro-payment. This is also completely up to you. For example, you can set this to be unlimited, 5 minutes, or 5 months. Each time the song is played, SHARE will check the blockchain to see if the viewer still has access. Once the time is up, they'll need to pay again to experience the content.
Please read the Terms of Service (ToS) with regard to hosting uploaded content. SHARE does not have the ability to modify or revoke smart contract assets deployed through the service, however, we reserve the right to suspend content hosting associated with these contracts. This means if your contract violates the ToS, we will not serve the associated content, and it is your responsibility to update your deployed smart contract with a new URI which points to a SHARE compliant host.
Fees. This displays the amount that it will cost to create and deploy the contract to the blockchain. You’ll need to have at least this amount of MATIC tokens in your wallet for the transaction to process.
Finalize. Select “Create”. This will create your smart contract. You’ll see a message in your wallet asking you to verify the transaction. Once you’ve verified, your transaction will process and result in your smart contract deployed on the blockchain.
Congratulations. You’ve successfully deployed a smart contract on the blockchain that is ready for distribution. You can select the link to listen to your music, or you can copy/paste the link to share it with your community.
We recommend you communicate to your audience that by using this method of distribution they are supporting and empowering your work directly through peer-to-peer streaming, as opposed to paying an intermediary like Spotify.
Want more detail? Visit our SHARE Protocol documentation.
Have questions or need help? Contact us at info@formless.xyz or visit us on Discord.
Upload. Select "Choose File" and locate the test music WAV file that we prepared above.
Artwork. Select “Custom Artwork” and upload an image file that meets the file type and size requirements identified on the screen. This image will appear as a thumbnail and as a screencap on your music. If you don't already have artwork that you want to use for testing, you can use this artwork file.
Audio Preview. Select “Custom Audio Preview” and upload a music file that represents a segment of your full music content and meets the file type and size requirements identified on screen. Users will be able to listen to this audio prior to purchasing access to your music. If you don’t already have an audio preview that you want to use for testing, you can use this audio preview file.
Royalty Splits. You’ll see your wallet address auto-populated in the Primary Owner field. When you start uploading music that has multiple creators, you can select the “Split Royalties” box, add addresses of other owners, identify their proportional share of royalties, and they’ll also be added as owners in your smart contract. Here’s an article on how to Create a smart contract that includes royalty splits between multiple contributors.
For now, keep this unchecked and proceed with yourself as the single owner of the video. This means revenues will flow to your address when the song is played.
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