Web3 and the creative industries: How blockchain is reshaping business models

Web3, underpinned by blockchain technology, is an evolution of digital infrastructure, whereby protocol-enforced consensus mechanisms facilitate the direct (that is, peer-to-peer) exchange of value between users, removing the need for trusted intermediaries. Existing blockchain experiments seek to create artist-centric business models, dismantling agency-centred business models that brokered and organised connections between artists and their fans or buyers. By enabling the automation of payments, licensing, intellectual property management, contracting and governance, digital content storage and access, blockchain technology also enables artists to set the terms of their market participation. An emerging decentralised ‘internet of value’ has the potential to reshape creative industries business models.