Despite being a crypto company, Audius is less vocal about its support for Web3. This is very much intentional, according to CEO Roneil Rumburg.
Rumberg estimated that only less than 10% of Audius users have installed MetaMask
With anywhere between five and seven and a half million monthly active users over the past year, the four years old Web3 company has maintained consistent user engagement.
There are approximately one million tracks and more than 250,000 artists available on the Audius platform. Rumberg claims that he thinks the technology used behind the scenes creates a more direct artist-fan interaction. It’s reasonable to wonder why there is a crypto component at all if the firm doesn’t disclose that fact.
The CEO said: “They’re getting the benefits of decentralization without having to be super aware of having to use a wallet.”
The company data has shown that electronic dance music (EDM) fans are the most active users on the platform.
“Forrest (my cofounder) and I were both embedded in the dance community as fans at the time and the artists we reached out to first were in dance,” said Rumberg. “Dance producers tend to be very tech-forward and willing to try new products, moreso anecdotally than those in other genres.”
Tycho and Dillon Francis have both previously stated that — because electronic music is created with computers and is more digitally oriented — electronic artists are likely to be more receptive to platforms containing crypto or NFT features.
In addition, Rumberg believes that EDM artists tend to attract fans in a more direct manner than those of other genres.
Audius’ second-most popular genre is hip-hop. Rumberg attributed this to its propensity to be both “tech-forward and grassroots.” For example, Grammy winning hip-hop producer Illmind has established his own NFT-based membership club.
While Audius may be surviving the crypto winter, not everyone will appreciate its community-based “superfan” approach. Rumberg said that Audius is not meant to compete with Spotify or Apple Music. The music platform has instead created a specific market niche where Web3 meets music.
