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Zero-to-One: From Idea, Development, to Launch

Onchain Music

Redefining music distribution and discovery through blockchain technology and social connection

Lead Product Design & Development

The Problem: A Broken Music Industry

The traditional music industry has long failed both artists and fans. Musicians struggle to earn fair compensation, losing the majority of streaming revenue to intermediaries and platforms. Meanwhile, music discovery has become dominated by opaque algorithms that prioritize engagement metrics over genuine connection and artistic merit.

The pain points are severe:

The rise of blockchain technology and decentralized networks promised a solution—but most music platforms simply replicated existing problems on new infrastructure, without fundamentally reimagining how music could be distributed and experienced.

Our Vision: Music With Friends Onchain

Cabalster was built on a simple but powerful insight: music is fundamentally social. Before algorithms, we discovered music through friends, mixtapes, radio DJs, and shared listening experiences. The best music moments happen together—at concerts, in cars, at parties, sharing headphones.

We set out to create a platform that combines three revolutionary concepts:

  1. Blockchain-Native Distribution: Giving artists true ownership and direct monetization
  2. Social Discovery: Replacing algorithmic recommendations with friend-driven discovery
  3. Shared Listening: Bringing back the communal joy of experiencing music together

The Core Principle

"Music is better with friends. Discovery should be social, not algorithmic. Artists should control their work and capture fair value."

This philosophy drives every design decision, feature, and line of code in the Cabalster ecosystem.

The Solution: A Multi-Platform Ecosystem

Cabalster is not just a single app—it's a comprehensive ecosystem for the post-algorithmic music era.

Cabalster.xyz: Artist Empowerment Hub

The main platform serves as the artist's command center for blockchain-native music distribution:

Upload & Distribute Artists upload their music once and distribute everywhere. The platform handles:

Marketing Campaigns Built-in campaign tools let artists:

Alternative Revenue Streams Beyond traditional streaming, artists can:

Music.infanity.xyz: Social Listening Experience

The listening platform reimagines music discovery for a post-algorithmic world:

Listen With Friends

Social Discovery Instead of algorithmic playlists, discovery happens through:

Blockchain Integration The listening experience is deeply connected to web3:

Design Process

Research & Discovery

We conducted extensive interviews with 50+ independent artists across genres—from hip-hop to electronic to indie rock. The insights were striking:

"I make $0.003 per stream on Spotify. It takes 333 plays just to make a dollar. Meanwhile, one superfan would happily pay $20 for my album if they could."

— Independent Hip-Hop Artist, 150K monthly listeners

"I have no idea who's actually listening to my music. The platforms give me numbers but no real connection to my fans."

— Electronic Music Producer

On the fan side, we surveyed 200+ music listeners and found:

Core Insights

  1. Artists want control: Ownership, transparency, and direct fan relationships matter more than reach
  2. Fans want connection: Social discovery beats algorithms every time
  3. Shared experiences create value: Listening together builds deeper appreciation and community
  4. Web3 enables new models: Blockchain removes intermediaries and enables direct value exchange

Design Principles

1. Artist-First, Always Every feature serves artist empowerment. If it doesn't help musicians succeed, it doesn't ship.

2. Social > Algorithmic Friend-driven discovery beats machine learning. Humans understand music in ways algorithms never will.

3. Onchain for Ownership Blockchain isn't a gimmick—it's infrastructure for true ownership and fair compensation.

4. Simple, Not Simplistic Web3 complexity hidden behind intuitive interfaces. Artists and fans shouldn't need to understand smart contracts.

5. Community-Driven Growth Organic social growth beats paid acquisition. Build for creators and communities, not vanity metrics.

Technical Architecture

Platform Stack

Frontend

Blockchain Integration

Audio Infrastructure

Social Features

Key Technical Challenges

1. Synchronization Getting multiple listeners perfectly in sync required:

2. Blockchain UX Making web3 feel web2 required:

3. Audio Quality Balancing quality and performance meant:

Implementation Highlights

Campaign Creation Flow

Artists can launch campaigns in under 5 minutes:

// Example: Creating a music drop campaign
interface Campaign {
  artist: string
  track: {
    title: string
    audio: File
    artwork: File
    description: string
  }
  pricing: {
    free: boolean
    price?: number
    currency: 'ETH' | 'USDC'
  }
  distribution: {
    onchain: boolean
    streaming: boolean
    social: boolean
  }
}

The flow guides artists through:

  1. Upload track and artwork
  2. Set pricing and distribution preferences
  3. Customize campaign landing page
  4. Deploy to blockchain
  5. Share with fans

Social Listening Rooms

The core innovation—listening together:

Creating a Room

Discovery Through Friends

Direct Artist Support

Fans can support artists without platform intermediaries:

All payments flow directly to artist wallets, with transparent fees (2-5% vs 30-50% on traditional platforms).

User Experience Design

Artist Dashboard

Clean, powerful interface for managing music business:

Key Features:

Design Details:

Listening Interface

Beautiful, immersive player designed for social discovery:

Main Player:

Social Panel:

Discovery:

Impact & Early Results

Artist Feedback

Since launch, we've onboarded artists who are seeing transformative results:

"I made more from 100 sales on Cabalster than I did from 100,000 streams on Spotify. This is the future."

— Jason Jet, Hip-Hop Artist

"Finally, a platform that treats music as art, not just content. I know exactly who's supporting my work."

— Independent Producer

Community Growth

The social features are driving organic growth:

Revenue Distribution

Artists are capturing significantly more value:

The Bigger Picture: Post-Algorithmic Discovery

Cabalster represents a philosophical shift in how we think about music and technology.

The Problem With Algorithms

Algorithmic recommendation engines optimize for engagement, not quality or discovery. They:

The Promise of Social Discovery

Friend-driven discovery is fundamentally different:

Beyond Cabalster

We're not just building a platform—we're pioneering a movement:

For Artists:

For Fans:

For the Industry:

Challenges & Lessons Learned

Technical Hurdles

Blockchain Complexity Challenge: Web3 wallets and transactions intimidate mainstream users Solution: Account abstraction and gasless transactions hide complexity

Scaling Social Challenge: Real-time sync for 1000s of concurrent listening rooms Solution: Distributed architecture with regional servers

Audio Quality vs Cost Challenge: High-quality audio expensive on decentralized storage Solution: Hybrid approach with CDN caching and IPFS backup

Product Challenges

Onboarding Artists Many musicians are skeptical of blockchain and new platforms. We learned:

Network Effects Social platforms require critical mass. Our approach:

Balancing Innovation and Familiarity Users expect certain music platform conventions. We had to:

What's Next: The Roadmap

Near Term (Q1 2025)

Mobile Apps Native iOS and Android apps with:

Enhanced Discovery

Creator Tools

Medium Term (Q2-Q3 2025)

Platform Expansion

Monetization Evolution

Social Features

Long Term Vision

Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO)

Cross-Platform Protocol

Global Artist Network

Conclusion: The Future of Music

Cabalster is more than a platform—it's a reimagining of how music works in the digital age.

We're building for a world where:

The traditional music industry is broken. Algorithms have isolated us. Streaming platforms have devalued art.

But change is possible. A post-algorithmic future is within reach. And music, experienced together, can bring us closer than ever before.

Cabalster is just the beginning.

Links

Join the movement. Listen with friends. Support artists directly. Welcome to the future of music.

Technologies Used

Next.js
TypeScript
React
Blockchain
Farcaster Protocol
Smart Contracts
Web3
Tailwind CSS

Key Results

Artist Empowerment
Direct Control
Artists maintain full ownership and control of their music onchain
Revenue Streams
Multiple
New monetization pathways beyond traditional streaming
Social Discovery
Friend-Driven
Moving from algorithmic to authentic social music discovery
#blockchain#music-tech#web3#social-platform#artist-tools#decentralization

The experience is currently best on desktop. On mobile, the chat interface or writings provide the best experience.