Colu, a platform using Bitcoin blockchain technology, today announced that it has beta launched its platform for developers. Individual developers and companies are now welcome to build on the Colu platform. In addition, Colu has announced Revelator as its first partner. Revelator is a cloud-based provider of sales and marketing intelligence for independent music businesses.
Colu has developed a platform based on Bitcoin blockchain technology, which for the first time can be used by developers and consumers with little to no bitcoin knowledge to build and exchange digital assets for everything from financial industry (shares, bonds, stocks), records (certificates, copyrights, documentation) to ownership (event tickets, vouchers, gift cards etc.). With the beta launch of the platform, individual developers and enterprises are now welcome to develop relevant digital assets and services according to their own and broader customer needs at Colu.co.
Colu is working with music-tech industry leader, Revelator, to build a Rights Management API. Today, there remains a complicated chain of rights ownership and usage in the digital distribution of music. This API will provide the secure issuance and distribution of digital assets including listing and registration of musical works for its clients and helping collecting societies provide more transparency and efficiency to all market participants.
“We are very excited about the potential for Colu’s platform to simplify the management of music rights, starting with those associated with songwriters and their compositions,” says Bruno Guez, founder and CEO of Revelator. “Colu has made the complex technology of the blockchain accessible for integrations into platforms like ours, and we’re looking forward to exploring all the ways it can improve service to our clients.”
D.A. Wallach, whose essay “Bitcoin For Rockstars” widely popularized the concept of a decentralized repository for music rights ownership, expressed enthusiasm for the partnership between Colu and Revelator. He said:
“I am thrilled that such capable entrepreneurs are chipping away at the vexing lack of transparency that makes it so hard for artists today to understand their sources of income. There is great opportunity for this approach to evolve into an industry-wide standard.”
Blockchain technology has been gaining momentum as a platform to enable secure ownership and sharing of various consumer assets, with more than US$1B in capital already recently invested in blockchain startups. Colu raised a US$2.5 million seed round of funding led by Aleph and Spark Capital in January 2015, and has since been developing its developer platform and consumer mobile application.
“The Colu team has been working closely with various companies to finally leverage blockchain technology in a consumer-friendly way,” said Amos Meiri, Colu CEO and co-founder. “We’re excited to launch this beta more broadly so solutions and services can be used by consumers down the road, starting with an industry as dynamic as music and entertainment. Colu is committed to making blockchain technology easily and safely accessible for everyone.”