Dean

SingularDTV is building out an entire ecosystem of services to bring the benefits of blockchain technology to the world of media. With offerings aimed at both media consumers and media producers, and covering everything from film to music, news podcast to visual art and more, it seems to be an interesting project in many different ways.

The system they are building will take time to complete, but as it is being released in a series of ‘modules’, some of which are already live and being used, there is already plenty available to whet the appetite and get a flavour of how SingularDTV is aiming to disrupt the way we make and consume media.

One of the modules which has already been launched is ‘Tokit’. Essentially, this is a platform through which media producers (and distributors, and charities and more!) can crowdfund investment in their art. On the other side of the fence, investors and fans can make contributions in return for special project tokens.

These project tokens can potentially have a wide range of meanings and uses depending on the project. The most common use is to share revenue generated by the project with the people whose money enabled its production, proportional to how much they contributed. This creates a whole new way for ordinary people to invest in individual media projects in return for financial rewards. But tokens can also give exclusive access to content or perks, discounts on products, and other benefits that may appeal to fans more than investors.

Eventually, financial rewards for investors will in many cases be paid out automatically based on the number of sales or viewers, removing the need to trust project leaders to be honest and fair in their financial dealings. This will begin in earnest when SingularDTV’s flagship ‘Ether Vision’ module launches; this alternative to the likes of Netflix and Spotify rolled into one will be based on smart contracts, allowing the investors cut of earnings to be paid out prior to the money even reaching the projects owners or management team.

Because rewards are tracked through crypto tokens, these investments are also very liquid. In fact, the team have created their own decentralized exchange to guarantee that investors will always have a place to trade their tokens.

There are already some pretty cool projects listed on Tokit, and you can view all of the current token sales in the gallery here: https://tokit.io/gallery

After a strong start with early projects attracting good levels of investment, it looks to me like the fickle crypto community have overlooked these fascinating and potentially profitable investment opportunities in favour of the ongoing ICO craze. Recent projects are struggling to gain their minimum investment levels despite showing some amazing potential in my humble opinion. That’s why I decided to write this article and to highlight some projects currently seeking funding that I think deserve some love (and cold hard crypto cash!). These aren’t the only ones on Tokit that I think are worthy of funding, just a couple of my own favourites:

Starfrosch: According to their own blurb:

Starfrosch (STFR) is the world’s first blockchain option for investing in Free Royalty Free music.

Essentially they produce radio shows, blogs and top lists of the best free public domain music. They plan to plow 20% of profits back into the STFR token to reward investors. They do still have a long time left before the end of their token sale, but so far they have only reached 5% of their minimum threshold.

BSIDE Productions: With a grand artistic vision including a mini-series as well as music, an existing back catalogue of work, and plans to both produce their own music as well as mentor and promote others, this project ticks a lot of boxes for me. They plan to add value to their ‘BTKN’ token by using it wherever possible for settling merchandise and media purchases, for performance contracts and payments and more. Backers can also get rewards like free downloads, t-shirts and a surprise VIP package.

New projects are being launched on Tokit all the time, so if you don’t like my picks, or any of the other current token sales, then do make sure you check back regularly and / or follow them on social media to get news on the latest launches!