Why Artists Lose Billions; And How Blockchain Changes Everything

Why Artists Lose Billions; And How Blockchain Changes Everything

From SoundBreaker by Bob Shami

May 1, 2026 · 39 min · Episode 138

About this episode

JC Barat discusses the broken global music rights system and how blockchain can revolutionize it.

In this episode of SoundBreaker, we meet JC Barat, co-founder of Allfeat, a blockchain infrastructure designed specifically for the music industry. Drawing from a background in wealth management and HR, JC explains how a personal encounter with his daughter’s musical journey exposed a deeper structural issue: the global music rights system is fundamentally broken. Today, more than $2.5 billion in royalties go unpaid every year — not because the money doesn’t exist, but because rights data is fragmented across disconnected systems. Six separate identifiers (IPI, ISNI, ISRC, ISWC, UPC/EAN, and more) live in isolated databases that do not communicate, making it nearly impossible to reliably connect creators to their earnings. JC walks us through how this fragmentation creates “black box” revenue losses, especially when compositions and recordings are not properly linked. He explains how even one missing connection can permanently erase royalty flows for artists. Allfeat proposes a new foundation for music rights: an open-source, blockchain-based certification layer governed by a Swiss non-profit. Through the Allfeat Timestamp Service, creators can instantly register proof of…

People in this episode

Host: Bob Shami

Guest: JC Barat

Topics covered

  • music rights
  • blockchain
  • royalties
  • data fragmentation
  • artist revenue

Keywords

  • music industry
  • royalties
  • blockchain technology
  • data structure
  • artist earnings

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Allfeat, Swiss non-profit

Products: Allfeat Timestamp Service, MIDDS

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