stoi.org leverages the Algorand blockchain to drive deeper engagement with fans using smart contract technology, in a break from the old systems that served as gatekeepers to audiences.

LOS ANGELES, March 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — The team behind The Song That Owns Itself today announces the launch of STOI #3 in collaboration with DMC, one-third of the legendary hip-hop group RUN-DMC. Together they have tokenized DMC’s song "Million Scars," enabling fans to co-own a piece of the song and thus share in its future success including any revenue earned from streaming, licensing, and more. The launch was celebrated today with DMC in conversation and performing at The AlgoRanch, an Algorand pop-up event in Austin, TX coinciding with SXSW.

Today’s announcement with DMC marks the third major artist utilizing the stoi.org technology, with STOI  #1 and #2 coming from Grammy-nominated artist Superposition and Jesse Boykins III. Artist DMC shares his thoughts:

"For years companies have been trying to get me to do something on blockchain. I have been hesitant because so much of it seemed about speculation, and I was worried about the environmental impact. I didn’t want to be another celebrity putting out NFTs or whatever just because it’s the hot thing to do and people are giving me money to do it. Then George Howard (arts advisor to Algorand and stoi.org founding member) reached out and introduced me to Algorand which has not only proven that blockchain can be carbon neutral, but is also already being used in so many ways that bring real value to the world. Releasing a STOI today is the first step in launching my DMC (Decentralized Media Company) with the larger goal of creating the next iteration of the music industry that values creators, fans and supports them all in the most transparent and fair way possible."

stoi.org is a revolutionary shared-ownership platform for music; each STOI is a "smart contract" that governs profit sharing for each song, split between creators and fans. At its heart, it allows creators to take back control of their works while rewarding all parties involved in its continued success. Historically, artist earning capacity has been limited by the financial decline of an incumbent recording industry that protects its bottom line at all costs, is governed by centralized hierarchies, fosters limited community engagement and perpetuates inequitable profit sharing. stoi.org was purpose-built to empower artists and create long-standing careers on their own terms.

Launched last month on the Algorand blockchain, stoi.org has a carbon-neutral footprint and extremely low transaction costs even as it scales. stoi.org automates the collection and distribution of profits to all of a song’s stakeholders (including fans and other stakeholders), thus increasing transparency and the rate of return, while protecting contractual integrity.

"Even though I’m classically trained and my dream was to be a musician like previous generations of my family, the paths of the music business’s golden era were no longer viable. Instead, I went into finance in order to advocate for financial inclusion and opportunity for artists. STOI creates a new framework for an artist to be heard by an infinite audience and for those who listen, promote and share the works to be rewarded in the process," said co-founding stoi DAO member Maria Tangarova.

While the initial STOI releases are curated by the overarching stoi.org DAO, the platform was built to be a fast-scaling, self-service utility for creators to distribute ownership and revenue. stoi.org operates like a "Stripe for groups" allowing any kind of recurring payments to be fractionalized and shared with creators, collaborators and fans.

The STOI tokens for "Million Scars" will be distributed via airdrop to attendees of the AlgoRanch pop-up event today in Austin and online at stoi.org/s/3.

Media Inquiries:
The Song That Owns Itself (stoi.org)
Greg Bresnitz
[email protected]

Algorand
[email protected]  

ABOUT THE SONG THAT OWNS ITSELF (stoi.org) [Twitter: @stoidotorg]
Stoi.org empowers creators with self-service smart contracts that enable tokenization and payment fractionalization of media on the Algorand blockchain. stoi.org  is one of the first products developed by The New Computer Company, a blockchain development team founded by award winning visionaries Aubrey Anderson and Benjamin Palmer. Seasoned veterans of the advanced digital space, their former work as founders of the Barbarian Group notably won the Grand Prix Innovation Cannes Lion. STOI was conceived and co-founded by the Co-Founder and CIO of ACME Innovation  and Distinguished Professor of music business at Berklee College of Music, George Howard. (Twitter: @gah650).

ABOUT DMC
Darryl McDaniels or "DMC" as most of the world knows him, first made his start in the music business as one third of the groundbreaking rap group Run-DMC and quickly became the most popular in terms of fans and influence. It would be hard to overstate his influence on popular culture. He helped transform Rap and Hip Hop into the most popular music in the world, while building a fan base that rivals the biggest acts in Rock ‘n’ Roll. As the first and greatest of Hip Hop’s superstars, Run-DMC succeeded beyond anyone’s wildest dreams – their own included – by embodying for the world the endlessly creative subculture of young black New York. They were the first rappers to earn a gold album, the first to earn a platinum album, the first to go multi-platinum, the first to have their videos played on MTV, the first to appear on American Bandstand and Saturday Night Live, and the first rap band to grace the cover of Rolling Stone and Spin.

About Decentralized Music Company (DMC)
Seeks to create the next evolution of what a record label can be. Focused on true connections and powered by Algorand, DMC (Decentralized Media Company) is creating a scalable model for the entertainment industry and those who support it to create a more transparent, equitable business that supports fans, creators, and everyone involved in ways never before possible.

ABOUT ALGORAND [Twitter: @algorand]
Algorand is building the technology to power the Future of Finance (FutureFi), the convergence of traditional and decentralized models into a unified system that is inclusive, frictionless, and secure. Founded by Turing Award-winning cryptographer Silvio Micali, Algorand developed a blockchain infrastructure that offers the interoperability and capacity to handle the volume of transactions needed for defi, financial institutions and governments to smoothly transition into FutureFi. The technology of choice for more than 1000 global organizations, Algorand is enabling the simple creation of next generation financial products, protocols and exchange of value. For more information, visit www.algorand.com.

DMC