A GLOBAL USER DRIVEN, SECURE, END-TO-END DEVELOPMENT, NETWORKING, DISCOVERY AND PROMOTIONAL PLATFORM FOR THE INDEPENDENT MUSIC INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS AND CONSUMERS

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention, in a broad sense, relating to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the music and performance industry, is an application that performs as a global platform for the music & performance industry and its consumers, with exclusive features designed and built for each category for independent peer to peer communicating, engaging, networking, discovery, sharing, promotion and revenue generation, with more focus on independent professionals.

It is a platform for individuals, groups and organisations related to the music and performance industry to connect, network and engage with peers, customers and audiences across the globe. An innovative and systematic approach to networking, marketing & promotion, customer feedback and revenue generation for independent artists, establishments and consumers alike in the music and performance industry. This application is for an ever growing and vibrant global industry that is an extremely robust, free-form, rapidly changing industry, overflowing with creativity in all forms and directions. It has an overwhelming amount of active individuals, producing scores of original content, products, services and performances on a daily basis. With a global audience and consumer base that surpasses economic, gender, age, cultural, geographical, ethnic or any other general classification, the industry is spread far and wide that can be reached out to, from within a single internet based application.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Industry and the Market

This invention, from a technical standpoint, is aimed at the music and performance industry, a free-form, rapidly advancing industry, with abundant creativity in all forms that includes several sectors such as artistic, service, research, technical and marketing operating within the industry, that has an overwhelming amount of active individuals producing scores of original content, performances, products and services. The music industry market consists of many different kinds of individuals and entities that not only produce and consume music as a product, but also individuals and entities that play equally important roles in making music, a product.

Currently, most of the music promotion websites and apps are based on digital streaming and downloads mostly streaming content from record labels, with some of them having services related to music licensing and distribution. Also, there are other social and professional networking websites and applications that offer networking and communication features. However, several other equally important industry related sectors such as music technology (instruments, recording & performance equipment, hardware, software), events & performances and education are largely disconnected from the popular stream, and the industry still suffers from the lack of a platform that can bridge this disconnection. To address this problem, all aspects of this application are

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SUBSTITUTE SHEETS (RULE 26) designed and built exclusively for the music and performance industry to effectively bridge the gap and provide a universal platform for all entities in the industry as well as its consumers.

About the invention

Aimed at the vibrant music industry that is more inclusive and an encouraging platform for those that are a part of it, the application is designed to perform as a universal application, by integrating all the integral sectors of the industry into the core functioning of the application, creating more opportunities, revenue streams, marketing avenues full of opportunities that ultimately result in better discovery, promotion, audience, consumers and exposure to what is being promoted, whether an artist, a product, service or an entity.

This application is designed to be a platform for individuals, groups and organisations alike in the music industry, to connect, network and engage with their peers, customers and audiences across the globe and actively integrate the audience into the process of creation, promotion and consumption while creating opportunities for networking, discovery, communication and finding support and encouragement. An innovative and systematic approach to networking and promotion for independent artists, groups, establishments and other industry entities alike.

This application, consisting of a set of functions and features, that are described further in this document, is built using PHP, Javascript, HTML frameworks, enabling the program to be a robust, responsive and a feature rich functional environment, added with a few extended unique features for the said purpose. However, a combination of other programming languages and frameworks can be used in order to obtain similar results.

Prior art

This is application does not represent any technological advancement, but is rather, a result of the same. The basic technologies and frameworks used to build this application are based on front end or client side technologies like HTML, CSS & JavaScript and back-end programming languages like PHP, SQL, that are similar to those used to build websites in general, some web services & applications and existing social networking websites. Some of the examples of websites where some functions can be found:

• Facebook, Linkedln - Social networking and communication.

• Youtube - Video uploads & streaming.

• Soundcloud - Music sharing.

• Twitter - Posting & interacting with messages.

• Apple Music, Spotify, Deezer - Music streaming.

However, none of these examples are industry exclusive applications (with the exception of Soundcloud which is mostly used by musicians) and some common features found in them (networking, streaming, etc.) consist of only a small part of the standard feature set in this application. OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION

Considering the current common practices used to promote music as a product in the music industry, not limited to a particular geographical location or a genre of music, but from a global standpoint, there are two streams that are most often followed by artists and production houses.

(i) Signing up with labels that basically perform as promotional and distribution agencies and carry out the entire promotional activity that leaves very little to no freedom or leverage to the copyright owner in that activity and costs a lot of money, bringing very little in revenue.

(ii) Placing recorded music independently as a product with music distributors that have streaming and music syncing services, that pay the artist/copyright owners based on the number of times a particular track/album was streamed/downloaded/sync licensed, etc., usually in digital format, for a fee that is case dependent, which is also not feasible more often than not.

• In case (i), Music labels always have the most benefit out of signing up any artist, more than the artist, leaving very little to no leverage or control for the artists/creators/producers, often generating very little revenue to the artist even after selling their music in large numbers.

• In case (ii), although the distributing agencies place the music in different streaming & download and licensing platforms and make it accessible for the audiences, they often do not take the responsibility to individually promote these albums or tracks or the artists. The artists have the liberty of choosing their promotional methods, but there is a large disconnect between his promotional methods & strategies used by the artists and the audience reach because of the virtual disconnect between the two (artist and the target audience) owing to factors like lack of local connections in every geographical location, reliable statistical data, information about local events, venues, etc.

• Both these cases often result in the artists depending on social networking platforms, messaging services among other methods that are usually not very effective in promoting their music and/or performances to their target audience.

• When music is brought forth for consumption, those entities that were actively involved in the production, like the producer, engineer, the studio, arrangers, and many more end up finding either no mention, or a mention in the credits section of the product, although they have almost always played a major role in producing the product and deserve a lot more than their due credits. There is neither a platform nor a streamlined way of promoting these entities in the market, let alone including them in the mainstream.

• There is often a lot of time, money and effort spent on marketing agencies to reach local audience in a particular location within the country or otherwise, resulting in a limited reach and limited success, if any, in delivering the product to a wider audience. Global promotions are even more difficult and therefore expensive and hence, they are usually never tried without signing up with labels or with international marketing agencies that, again, cost a lot of money.

• Lack of an integrated system extending over different sectors in the music industry that includes music and related products like hardware, software, music & performance related equipment, services and talent as the core of the music industry makes the industry rather fragmented. • As a result, promoting music and music related products and services on a global scale is rather difficult, time consuming, involves several channels and people, often complicated and rather expensive.

This application has been designed and built to address the issues including the ones mentioned above, that points to a large disconnect between different streams in the industry, by including all possible entities related to music creation, performance and consumption and those in between in its core functionality, that can inter-connect to create and increase opportunities for all kinds of talent in the music and performance industry in one place.

This platform will not only benefit customers by opening them up to a global repository of music, events, products & services, but also goes a long way in making a step or two forward, in depicting a larger picture of the music industry, providing an insight to the consumer fraternity about the functioning mechanism of the industry and its products, with ever more information, choices and creating a bigger opportunity for the professionals in the music industry.

Core Objectives

This application will:

• Create an independent global platform for the performance industry, in the form of a portal and an app, which in effect, is a full scale website for artists, groups and establishments to add and exhibit all essential information about the user roles, styles, interests, timeline, media, projects, calendars, location, events, activity, products and more.

• Make Independent artists, music, performances and services more accessible globally.

• Create a growing database of the music and performance industry with all essential info about individuals, groups, products and establishments.

• Connect third party service agencies like marketing & promotion, travel, logistics and hospitality for better promotional and operational independence while creating and amplifying opportunities.

• Create advertising and promotional opportunities while networking and generate revenue.

• Promote music, events and related products, directly and independently at a global scale.

• Create a platform for engineers, producers, arrangers, and tech innovators that make the core essence of the music industry and reinforce their strength and importance in the industry by inducting them into the mainstream.

• Create opportunities to easily connect and integrate other sectors and services such as tourism, logistics, travel, hospitality, etc., optimising the internal mechanism and promoting the industry.

• Diversify events, performances and venues by making it easier for the users to discover and reach out to artists, venues, service providers and organisers.

• Create an end-to-end networking, promotion and revenue generating platform for individuals, startups and large enterprises connected to music, performance, related technology and innovation. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This application is a user driven secure, single, end-to-end development, networking, discovery and promotional platform for the music industry professionals and consumers enabling accessibility, networking, discovery and independent promotion of music, products & services related to the music industry. It is designed to perform as a standalone application for music discovery, music streaming, networking and promotion of music, artists, events, festivals & performances, music technology, related products, businesses and services, providing all music and related products & services like music discovery, connectivity, productivity and an ever growing catalogue of the same for the consumers as well as professionals across the globe in one place.

Empowering every independent individual and entity connected to the music and performance industry to operate independently, to be able to directly reach out to and make their products & services available to their customers, fans and to the the public, greatly reducing the time, effort and costs of bringing them to the market and promoting them, is the core essence of this application, resulting in better support and encouragement for independent individuals to be ever more productive, innovative, enterprising, self supporting and increasing focus on the areas of their primary skills and expertise, while ensuring a wider reach with lesser time and efforts.

The application is built using PHP, Javascript, HTML frameworks, enabling the program to be a robust, responsive and a feature rich functional environment, added with a few extended unique features for the said purpose. However, a combination of other programming languages and frameworks can be used in order to obtain similar results.

A list of main functions of the application, the functions not limited to:

• Perform as a one stop shop for all music industry professionals and consumers for their professional requirements

• Find professional products and services for professional needs

• Promote music, products, services, events, venues and avail the same from other providers

• Connect and promote to a global consumer base directly and efficiently

• Get statistics based on locations, followers & their engagement with one’s products and services

• Avail data & analytics for promotional design

• Introduce & promote innovation & new tech directly to consumers

• A networking hub for music industry professionals and consumers

• Music distribution and discovery

• Music & video streaming and sharing PRIMARY DESIGN FEATURES (CLAIMED)

1 . Pan industry application: A single, music industry specific, secure, end-to-end platform for development, networking, discovery and promotion with an exclusive & distinct set of features for all kinds of individuals, professionals and entities connected with the music industry for peer to peer networking, discovery and independent promotion of the user’s music, products & services related to the music industry.

2. Call it what you want: The user determines certain parameters, like the genre, associated with their uploaded item, enabling better search results also urging the uploader to be more specific. This, is further combined with the user feedback data on the said item before delivering it to other users, making the process more natural, user determined and emphasises the audience perspective, without any active intervention in such parameters.

3. Smart content: All content delivered to the user on the home page is determined based on the user location, preferences the user has set in his console, his musical style interests, and his primary role.

4. Optimised smart search: Search results that are optimised based on preferential data given by the uploader combined with specific parameters from the user’s profile settings feedback rating, applied to all search items enables better search results for all items that the user can control.

5. Active feedback: All users irrespective of their primary role are active participants in the promotional process through the way in which the application attaches the feedback data with the item that received feedback from the user, and using that data in content delivery to enhance the quality of the smart content filters and optimising search results.

6. Misuse reporting & resolution: Report any media found to be abusive or infringed upon, with valid reason and proof to block access to the media until resolved where the users can use the option to withdraw, citing valid reasons to arrive at a resolution without a third party intervention.

7. Instant contract: Automatically generate work contracts between users based on their primary roles and profile details with optional specific clauses based on the job requirement.

8. Universal upload module: A single upload module that serves different kinds of professional user profiles with distinct options for each kind of user to upload their media, project materials or product information.

9. Universal Platform: An application with an exclusive and distinct set of features for all kinds of users connected with an industry wherein, individuals and entities from all sectors of the industry and the consumers have a direct benefit from access to role specific tools to use for promotion, consumption or revenue.

10. Personalised store: All profiles are also personalised stores for the user for anything the professional users offer as their products or services that can be used by the users from the creators and facilitators section to sell their products and services. OTHER FEATURES

1 1 . Music data exchange: A secure, robust and reliable networking & data exchange system to interact and exchange music data with peers, entities and professionals quickly, directly and effortlessly for development and collaboration.

12. PinBoard: Instantly store and access any text data that can also be sent out as a shout or used as titles for media.

13. Integrated calendar: A calendar that can be used to mark events and other important dates that the user can instantly access.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

This invention is a global platform for the music & performance industry professionals and consumers for peer to peer engaging, networking, promotion and revenue generation. A platform for individuals, groups and organisations to connect and engage with peers, customers and audiences across the globe. This invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, throughout which, corresponding references (in parentheses) indicate corresponding entities in the various figures. This invention (also referred to as application) is an innovative and systematic approach to networking and promotion for independent artists, establishments and consumers alike. (Fig-1 B)

Being a user driven application, all users (U, Fig-1 A) classify themselves by choosing a profile type based on their role & involvement in the music industry from a list of specific roles which will be the basis on which the users will have a personalised experience using the application. This selection determines the user category that falls under three broad sections :

(i) Creators (A, Fig-1 A)

(ii) Facilitators (B, Fig-1 A)

(iii) Consumers (C, Fig-1 A)

All users irrespective of their category will be able to use a set of standard common features in the application like smart search, Instant messaging, creating, saving and sharing playlists, posting media & texts, connecting with peers, rating & feedback, purchase, PinBoard, smart content delivery, etc.

CREATORS

They are the users who are the original sources, creators and / or copyright owners of the material that they upload (P, Fig-1 A) like music, videos, software and hardware products, and considered as professional users.

ARTISTS & BANDS

Artists & bands (A- 1, Fig-1 A) are one of the main driving forces of the application, and the primary benefactors of the application where there is more focus on the independent artists and bands, to provide them with an all inclusive platform to network, create and promote music and independently generate revenue across the globe. All other user categories in the application are incontrovertibly connected to this category to create one of the largest platforms available for the music industry professionals including musicians, bands, producers, engineers, and many other industry professionals to promote their products and connect to audience & consumers globally.

TECH INNOVATORS

Tech Innovators (A- 11 , Fig-1 A) add an immense value to the industry but often not included in the mainstream music promotion systems and platforms. Tech innovators that innovate, design and produce invaluable innovative products for the industry include those talents that work form their garages or an established company that produce some of the greatest and most useful tech innovations for the musicians and performers. This application intends to provide a platform for such talented individuals or entities to promote their products & innovations and bring them directly to the public and consumers across the globe for a wider exposure and audience. Providing a platform for independent individuals and entities in this sector adds great value to the application, their products and has multiple benefits to all kinds of application users.

PRODUCERS

This professional category of individuals such as music producers, composers, arrangers, recording, mix and mastering engineers, collectively referred to as producers (A- III, Fig-1 A), play a major role in music production, but are seldom found on the existing music promotional platforms. As an integral part in the process of music production and consumption, this application has for them, a distinct role to get recognised where they can promote their productions, services and give as much information about their projects as they like, to promote themselves, their productions & services. This is aimed at emphasising their role in the music industry and make them & their services more accessible to a wider section of artists & bands across the globe and to give a better exposure to their services.

FACILITATORS

They are the users that are not into creating, but are the catalysts to promote original content like music, performances and provide opportunities by the way of facilities and / or services (P, Fig-1 A) like performance venues, organising and / or marketing events and performances to the consumer fraternity.

VENUES

Venues (B-l, Fig-1 A) include all kinds of performance spaces, theatres, restaurants, performance halls, auditoriums and any entity that can actively accommodate musical performances and an audience. The application has an exclusive feature set designed and built for the venues that can be used to promote events and performances they host by uploading all the required information specific to the purpose, to directly reach out to their audience, locally as well as globally. This can be accessed by both audience and artists, based on factors like dates, location, genre, festivals and more. The venues can also use this application to provide information about their events and/or sell their events to their audience and consumers.

ORGANISERS

Organisers (B-ll, Fig-1 A) category includes Individuals or organisations that plan / organise / execute events, festivals, performances and anything that involves musical performances and that has a live audience. They can use this application to promote their events with all the details like dates, location, acts, artists and all data regarding their events that can be accessed by artists, audiences, venues and just about any user of the application across the globe, thereby giving them a global access and exposure. The application also helps them in targeting their audience based on location, and the style of music, etc. MANAGERS & PROMOTERS

Managers & promoters (B-lll, Fig-1 A) are the individuals and / or organisations that design and run marketing campaigns for promoting music, artists, bands, events, etc. Besides providing them a direct platform for their services, with distinct profile features and making them more accessible to a wide variety of service seekers, this application also helps them develop a direct link between themselves and the creator sector users such as artists, bands and innovators and other facilitators like venues & organisers for networking and marketing their products, making them easier to be discovered, accessed, and expanding their potential client base and reach out to their clients and audiences across the globe, bringing a greater diversity to events anywhere generally and more visibility to the products they promote.

CONSUMERS

They are another driving force and a part of the core functioning of the application, major beneficiaries and the ultimate consumers of a majority of the products offered by the creators and the facilitators and play an active role in the core functionality through active feedback, blogging and as consumers.

As much as there is new music, artists, events, products and services to discover, there are new opportunities to be explored to effectively deliver them to the audience and the consumers. A consumer in this application does contribute a lot to the application as well as to the other two sectors and has the most benefit including opportunities to generate revenue through blogging and an unprecedented access to professional products and services that was mostly available only to the professionals in the industry. The consumer section collectively consists of the following three categories:

BLOGGERS

Bloggers (C-l, Fig-1 A): With blogging accessible to all users, this application provides another opportunity for active bloggers, hobbyists and music explorers to take advantage of the blog space in the profile section. They would have all the inspiration and data to write music related blogs while networking, discovering new music, artists, events, festivals, products and services that are generally accessible on the portal. Bloggers can use the facility to drive registered users from within the application and unregistered users from outside the application to their blogs, drive traffic to other entities within the portal and also use the opportunity to generate revenue.

CONSUMERS & AUDIENCE

Audience / fans / consumers (C-ll, Fig-1 A): By merely logging on to the application any user can access a great amount of products, content and information on music, artists, events, services and so on. With the wealth of features and information the application carries for the consumers, combined with a simple and comprehensive design, layout and functionality, that is easy to use and navigate through, the consumers have access to almost anything related to music and the music industry and find exactly what they need quickly, besides finding opportunities to generate revenue. INFLUENCERS & CRITICS

Critics / influencers (C-lll, Fig-1 A): They are mostly music enthusiasts, ardent listeners / followers of music and artists and those that possess a great deal of knowledge and experience in the music industry. This is a great platform for them to write blogs, give active feedback about material on the portal and expand their repertoire. They also are a great support for development of another user’s project, to improvise on the features and how users experience the application and to the professionals through active feedback and blogging. Since their feedback is recorded and used as data for smart content delivery and smart search functions, besides their blogs would generally have a good quality content.

LAYOUT & FUNCTIONING

The basic application layout is designed with four main sections ie. Home, Profile, Console, Community. A single, comprehensive layout caters for all types of user profiles. Each section is designed and built with distinct features for the specific user categories and their specific requirements.

Home

The Home section is where most of the action is, where the user lands right after logging in, where all the application users’ posted content can be accessed along with access to a few common features of the application that all users, irrespective of their primary roles will be able to access a set of general features that are mentioned below. (G, Fig-1 A)

INBOX

Where the user can access all the communication from other connections, respond to new connections requests, follower requests, group invites, access files sent by the user’s connections, view and respond to contracts, reports and access shared content by other users and connections.

PINBOARD

A utility to keep messages, thoughts, titles, lyrics, anything that the users might want to scribble down before they forget. There are several ways in which the users might find it useful, using it as a typical Pin-Board to jot down important things that need to be done later, or a half composed message, titles, lyrics, a set of points regarding something the user is working on, links to check out later, etc. Anything typed there stays there until the user decides to change or delete it. It stays in place even when the user logs out and can be accessed when the user logs back in. Also, it can be posted on the wall without having to copy or be typed again. The data in the PinBoard appears in the title/message of the instant upload window.

INSTANT UPLOADS

A section that the user can use to quickly upload music, videos and images with titles and messages that can be shared by other users and use it for sending out a message or for sharing and promotion. FILTERS

A set of smart content filters that help in delivering the content of the users’ choice in their home section, which is based on different parameters like the content type, media type, location, etc.

INSTANT MESSAGING

A built-in section used for short, secure and Instant communication with the user’s contacts, and where the users can create groups with their contacts and interact with the members.

CALENDAR

An integrated calendar that can be used to mark or save the dates of interested events, performances along with their information that the user can instantly access. It can also be used to search for events in a particular location on a particular date.

MAIN CONTENT

All content in this section is categorised by type of media, post, events, acts, location, date primary and and associated styles of music, with all necessary details about the post and delivered via smart content delivery that is applied to all the content delivered to the user in the main content area of the home section.

SMART CONTENT FILTERS

The main content section on the home page has a set of smart content filters (F, Fig-2) applied to it before delivering it to the user (U, Fig-2), each of which is explained below. The filters are used by the user to access all the content to help the user to effortlessly browse through all the content on the portal, filtering out all but the specific content the user is looking for. Along with the filters, all content delivered to the user is further optimised based on the user location, the user preferences from the user’s profile (P, Fig-2), their musical style interests (M, Fig-2), and their primary role (R, Fig-2). Below are the smart content filters and their functions.

New: All content, irrespective of the type, pertaining to the user’s primary role, his profile preferences and musical style, that has been newly posted in the past 12 to 24 hours is delivered to the user.

Featured: Sponsored content and content based on recommendations from users and consumers depending on the location of the current user, their profile settings and preferences are delivered with this filter. This also consists of content sponsored by local advertisers that would choose to promote an artist, band, or any creator product of their choice.

Watchout: This filter delivers promotion material and information about artists and bands that are traveling to the current user’s country or city in a span of a set time frame (e.g.15 days), or the events happening in the users city or country in the same time span. This is aimed at giving the users a heads up about the events and activities they might be interested in. Campaigns run by tech innovators and marketers / promoters also appear under this filter if the location, time and preference parameters match up between the user and the campaign data. This is also optimised with the preferential data from the user’s profile settings and preferences.

Events: This filter delivers content in three sub-sections ie: Local, National and Global. The content delivered is based on the user location and his profile preferences pertaining to the genres the user prefers and is associated with.

(i) Local or Near me tab displays events that are happening in the user’s current locality in a span of 15 (variable) days from the current date.

(ii) National tab displays the events happening in the country of the current user in a span of 30 (variable) days from the current date.

(iii) Global tab displays the content from around the globe that are happening within a span of 10 (variable) days from the current date.

All content is further optimised with the user settings and preferences from the user profile.

Tech: All the tech products, hardware and software that have been recently posted in a span of 30 (variable) days prior to the current date, are delivered, also based the user's preferences and profile settings.

Music: All newly posted music tracks are delivered in the order of latest first, also pertaining to the preferences and profile settings of the current user.

Videos: Videos filter brings all newly posted videos, pertaining to the preferences and profile settings of the current user in the order of latest first.

Feed: This is the default filter that delivers content irrespective of the type in the order of latest first, pertaining to the user's preferences and profile settings.

Profile

The user’s personal or company profile that contains the user’s data that has been uploaded via the console section. This includes several sections for the user’s connections, projects, associations, albums, education, their tagline, music player, etc. All user profile has three main parts (i) Blog (ii) Profile, (iii) Wall, out of which the parts (i) and (ii) can be viewed by visitors, and (iii) is only accessible to the owner of the profile.

BLOG

All users of the application have access to this section which they can use to create their own blogs, written based on content related to the music industry. This section can also be used to review, analyse and promote any entity within the application and generate revenue. This not only increases overall experience quality to the application user base, but also creates an opportunity where even the consumers can actively participate in the promotion of products and services, attracting more viewers to the product or user’s profile and also driving more audience and consumers to the entity that the blog content is based upon. Once the blogs are published, they can be made accessible to a global audience irrespective of whether they are registered users of the application or not. However, only registered users can view or access any content of the links within the blog that point to any other content, media or user profiles within the application.

PROFILE

A section of the application for the users to display their professional data that visitors can access. This also doubles up as a personal website and a personalised store for the user where they can display all their professional & academic achievements, projects, albums, events, products, connections, associations, and almost anything professional that they would like to have on their profile. This section is further divided into three sub sections and the entire access to edit this section is through the console section. The three profile sub-sections are:

(i) Banner: First thing visitors will notice when they visit any profile. It consists of a large image with a title and a tagline that the users can use to display their professional identity or current projects or anything they want to project first.

(ii) Personal info section: A small section just below the banner consisting of a smaller image and the display name of the profile owner followed by his primary and secondary roles. This section also consists of an empty space that is reserved for displaying information about the album and track uploaded by the profile owner.

(iii) Professional info & store section: This is the third section that consists of all other professional data updated by the profile owner that may consist of albums, projects, associations events, venues products, academic and professional details, achievements, contacts, and anything that the user updates from the projects and professional details section in the console. This section also contains a personalised store through which the user can sell their products.

WALL

This section is only accessible to the owner of the profile and not the visitors. This is where the user can access all his posted items, check comments, make comments and replies, edit, delete or repost the item.

Console

This section is designed to be the control section of the user experience in the application. This is where the users edit, update, all their profile data including their personal data, professional data, their roles, academic achievements, education, musical styles, professional info, upload albums, projects and anything related to their profession. The console has six sub sections:

SECTION 1 & 2

User details & Personal details (Essential)

Section 1 & 2 is where the user selects the roles, styles, username display name, personal details, profile picture, personal info, personal website address, company name, etc. This is also where the user can change their passwords and other info. SECTION 3 & 4

Profile Details & Project Uploads (Essential)

Section 3 is for the profile banner (main outlook), the first thing the visitor will see while visiting one’s profile, bringing the visitor’s attention to the current project, made easy to update whenever the profile owner wishes to change. This section also doubles up as a preview section for the projects, albums or videos uploaded in the following section. This helps the user to preview the item they are uploading and make any changes or modifications before publishing the same.

Section 4 is the Universal upload section used to upload albums, video productions, promo material for products, venues, tours, events, product information, venues information, etc. An exclusive and well laid out section for updating all the required details of every type of media being uploaded, including musical styles, kind of project, musical genres, other attributes like location for venues and events, dates, specific details about venues, products and services. All items uploaded here will appear in the user’s profile page for the visitor.

SECTION 5 & 6

Academic / Professional details & Account Privacy

Section 5 is used to update the user profile with academic and other related professional details like past projects, associations, education, skill and experience. This not a mandatory section, but the users can use this to enhance their profile with their work-history and achievements.

Section 6 is the user account privacy settings section and also where the users can access their abuse/infringement reports for resolution and withdrawal. It also serves as a storage space for the user’s saved playlists and shared playlists and a few other personal items.

Community

A single page for displaying user cards from all professional categories for browsing, discovering, searching through the members based on their primary roles in the application. This page can be used to view profiles of the professional users, connect with them, view info and more. The order of the content displayed on this page is by the newest entries in descending order, that can be changed by the users to meet their requirements. The search parameters can be, either in ascending or descending order of: Display names, latest activity, number of items posted, or based on country of origin, city of origin, currently touring, currently touring country, city , etc.

APPLICATION FEATURES

This application has a fairly large assortment of highly useful features that the users have access to, that are designed and built exclusively for the music industry to help the users find almost any product or service directly related to the music industry. For consumers, it helps discover music, videos, artists, bands, events, innovative music technology products, and more.

For creators, it is a treasure trove of tools to network with peers, develop projects, complete existing ones, find team members, produce material, exchange data, promote their products and sell them, all at a global level. For facilitators, they can use these features to reach out to their customers, promote and market their venues, events, find collaborators, clients, other service providers, and also sell their services, tickets to their events, and more, all while having access to all the features available to every user like blogging, messaging, search, discovery, etc.

PERSONALISED SMART SEARCH & SMART CONTENT DELIVERY

These two functions are designed in such a way that all users, to a large extent, will have an experience exclusive to them. With a robust content delivery mechanism and a personalised smart search function that delivers results from within the application database based on multiple parameters like the genre of music, country/city of the user and the item being searched, location of an event, date of an event / festival, venue location, type of venue, kind of equipment / service being searched, etc., the content is always further optimised with the user’s preferences, activity and location. (Fig-2)

This enables the whole experience of using the application, discovering music, artists, events, venues, products, services and technology related to music production, consumption and performance, a more personalised experience at a global level.

DIRECT CONNECTIVITY

By enabling worldwide direct connectivity to audience, promoters, businesses, and every entity in the music industry along with localised audience connect through collaborating with local establishments, professional users can get better results in promoting their products, services and performances and reaching out to their target audience. (G, Fig-1 A)

This enables independent artists and music industry professionals to a large extent to be truly independent and find professional support of their choice independently from across the globe.

FACILITATOR PLATFORM

By creating a platform for individuals and entities that offer facilities, products and services for the music industry, the users can greatly benefit from access to these entities directly from across the globe. (B, Fig-1 A)

This allows venue owners, organisers and the promoters to directly connect to artists as well as their consumers around the globe boosting productivity, promotion and outreach.

ACTIVE CONSUMER

Since the user blogs must be generally related to the music industry, if the blogs point to an artist, entity, product or a service within the portal, the blogs can be used to generate revenue, which is an added advantage to the professional users like artists, bands, venues, events and tech innovators within the application that get promoted through these blogs. (R, Fig-1 A)

This allows Inclusion of audience and consumers into the mainstream promotion and allow them to add to the revenue generation while giving them an opportunity for the same. INSTANT CONTRACT

A built in feature for instant contracts (Fig-5) where options and clauses pertaining to different parameters of the contract can be added to a basic draft conforming to the constantly updated global standards of music performance, sales, distribution and different modes of consumption.

This feature allows any professional user to engage with another professional user with a work contract that can be instantly generated when required, based on their primary roles and profile details with optional specific clauses based on the job requirement. These contracts, developed in accordance with current and constantly updated global norms related to streaming, licensing, performance contracts, IPRS norms related to the music and performance industry, maintaining a global standard for the contracts.

REPORTING ABUSE & RESOLUTION

The application has a comprehensive & interactive abuse & infringement reporting system for music, videos and images that allows instant reporting of any media found to be abusive or infringed upon to block access to the media until the matter is resolved.

All audio, video files instantly uploaded carries with it a report function, that opens a window containing all the essential data about the post that is being reported as well as the data of the reporting user, prompting the user to ascertain his action on the post being reported, furnish the details of the reporting and submit along with any proof that they might have for the claim. On submission, the system will accept the same after preliminary validation of the type of proof document, and the post that has been reported becomes inaccessible to any user, with a message and the screen identity of the reporting user. (Fig-3)

This feature has been added to the application in order to prevent misuse of the system by uploading media that the user doesn’t own the rights for and urges the users to use it responsibly. Both users are notified internally as well as via email and prompted to resolve the matter among themselves. If the reporting turns out to be valid, the post will remain inaccessible. False reporting and misuse of this system will result in the account of the user being suspended pending resolution, or completely deactivated owing to the extent of abuse or abuse reporting and behaviour of the user. This feature is aimed at curbing misuse of a valuable revenue generating system with material that the user does not fully own and also, when there is an issue between two users or entities, they have a way to resolve the issue by themselves without a third party intervention. (Fig-4)

Reporting abuse in comments and replies work in a similar fashion. With lesser complication and fewer parameters involved, will render the reported comment or reply unreadable and marked as‘reported as abuse’.

INTEGRATED CALENDAR

A calendar that instantly shows any events and other announcements made by the user’s connections that can be easily and instantly accessed by the user. It also can be used to mark any events that the user is interested or has purchased tickets or has been invited to. A very useful feature to mark and save events and other important dates that the user can instantly access. ACTIVE FEEDBACK

All items posted will have a feedback section through which the users can rate the item based on what is claimed about the item by the uploader and how it appears to the viewer. This is recorded as user-feedback which is combined with other data for content delivery and analysis before delivering the item to the other users, in search results, etc.

This is also a direct benefit to the uploader where they can analyse the user feedback of their uploaded items, use the data to determine several aspects pertaining to the item such as the locations the item is getting the most good response from, locations that need better promotion, age group of the people that have given a positive feedback, etc. This also gives the users, data that they can analyse to help in designing promotional material, strategies, etc.

PINBOARD

A pin-board sits on top of the homepage that instantly stores all text typed and stays there until the user edits or deletes it. The typed text can be instantly used as a message (shout) or as the title for any audio or video that the user wants to post. It can be used as a scribble-pad for scribbling down items as a reminder that the user might forget later. Instantly store and access any text data that can also be sent out as a shout or used as titles for media.

PERSONALISED STORE

All profiles are also personalised stores for selling music, music licensing, concert tickets, tech products, services and music equipment, anything the professional users offer as their products or services. This can be used by the users from the creators and facilitators section to sell their products and services. Equipped with a download section for downloadable items like tracks, albums, software or anything offered as a downloadable product to the consumers.

BLOGGING

The blog feature available to every user gives them a personal space where they can connect to other users in the community with their blogs.

Blogs are also a source of income based on the quality of the content and the number of readers/subscribers the blogger has. Bloggers can use their own blogging space to review any activity, user, product, entity, event, performance, music, album or any other music and performance related matter and use it for revenue generation.

INSTANT MESSAGING

Standard secure messaging service to communicate with the user’s connections. The users can also create groups to send messages between groups of registered users that are the current user's connections.

UPLOAD & SHARE

There are two ways a user can upload content to the portal. One through the Instant uploads on the home page and the other through the console section via the universal media uploader under the‘My Projects’ in section-4 of the console. Instant uploader can be used to upload single media files of music (tracks), videos and posters or images that are not considered under the projects of the user. All uploaded content can be accessed in the home page that is delivered to the users in through smart content delivery.

Universal uploader allows the user to attach several information with the uploaded media like all kinds of credits for an album, dates and location for events, all kinds of data and information for venues, Any kind of technical information for tech products and so on. The universal uploader also has a preview feature where the users can preview the output before they publish it on their profile and to the public. This allows them to make any necessary changes before the item is published.

INDUSTRY SPECIFIC DATA EXCHANGE

This application allows creation of workspaces for uploading data files & folders with multiple files as an administrator and add members to the workspace with editable read / write privileges for each member to share music recording data as DAW files for tracking, layering mixing or mastering, or share music scores in different digital formats for work distribution and collaboration with other professionals.

BUSINESS & REVENUE

The primary aim is to help not only artists, but all the independent music industry professionals to promote their music, performances, venues, services and products directly to their customers and audiences. Here is a set of conventional revenue generation methods that can be employed to generate revenue for the application.

^ Service Pricing ( For different extended functionalities and services offered within the application )

• Info based on geolocation

• Calendar integration

• Auto contract

• Revenue commission for ticket sales

• Third party service assistance

• Media sales (Music streaming and downloads)

^ Subscription

• Yearly subscription fees at three or four levels, offering different levels of restriction, unrestricted access at the highest level.

^ Revenue for artists

• 100% royalties for streaming

• Mechanical & sync licensing

• Direct downloads

Besides using conventional methods of revenue generation, based on the services offered to various business entities like venues, event organisers, tech companies, each service is designed to be charged a-la-carte for the respective businesses and the application be made more cost effective for the users with some services offered free of charge for the independent musicians and bands.

Product advertising (H, Fig-1 A) offered to third party service providers like sound and light vendors, instrument and equipment manufacturers, logistics and hospitality, state tourism, etc., can and would generate revenues for the application. Advertisements can be location specific, multiple locations or global, based on the advertiser requirement. Any advertiser, irrespective of their connection with the music industry, e.g. automobile sector, a popular beverage or a local coffee shop, can advertise in the application, on the condition that they promote an artist, band, or an independent creator or a music tech product of their choice.

CONCLUSION

There are several ways the application can be used independently by the music industry professionals for exploring, developing, collaborating, promoting, sharing, discovering of artists, music, events, venues, products, technology and almost any other music industry specific professional services and products spanning the entire industry across the globe, making it truly one of a kind, inclusive, transparent, reliable, efficient and the first of its kind application in an industry sector.