Takin' Care of Lady Business®
Jennifer Justice
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S2Ep79: Blockchain in the Music Industry: How TOKiMONSTA is Changing the Music Industry for the Better with Sona
As TOKiMONSTA, Jennifer Lee has made a name for herself as a Grammy-nominated music producer, pioneering the L.A. Beat Scene and ranking as one of the top 100 DJs worldwide. Her entire discography has drawn critical praise, collaborating with a long list of artists including Anderson Paak, Earthgang, and Ryuichi Sakamoto, and remixing artists like Sia and Beck. In 2015, Lee was diagnosed with Moyamoya, a rare brain disease that left her unable to communicate or comprehend music, but she persevered through two surgeries and cognitive therapy to make a triumphant comeback at Coachella in 2016. Her first album post-surgery, Lune Rouge, was nominated for ‘Electronic Album of the Year’ at the 2019 Grammy Awards. In 2020, she released her fourth full-length album, Oasis Nocturno, showcasing her progression as an artist with a mix of house, funk-soul, and hip-hop. Throughout the pandemic, she continued to innovate by hosting the popular music program Lost Resort on Twitch, collaborating on an NFT collection, and curating a livestream event for Women’s History Month. Always looking to combine her creativity with innovation, TOKiMONSTA continues to push boundaries across music, fashion, tech and beyond. Toki has now entered the world of tech having cofounded a music tech start up by the name of “Sona.” The aim of Sona is to democratize music streaming for artists in a world where the pay per stream is not adequate for a musician’s cost of living. The protocol and platform will reconstruct the scaffolding of music streaming so that audiences still have access to all the music they desire, while allowing artist’s payout to equate to what they truly deserve. In 2022, Sona raised approximately 7 million in funding and is in development. The company is aiming for a mid-2023 launch. In this episode of Takin’ Care of Lady Business®, recorded in Ibiza, Spain at the International Music Summit, host Jennifer Justice sits down with special guest TOKiMONSTA, a DJ and music producer who shares her experiences as a woman of color and encourages listeners to lead with their best foot forward, choosing to represent who they really are instead of taking shortcuts. The episode also explores her tech start-up, Sona, which rewards both artists and curators, offers a fairer payment system and uses blockchain technology. Here is what to expect on this week’s show: Sona’s plan to revolutionize the music industry with a streaming platform that allows users to stream music for free and invest in artists by buying the streaming rights to their songs. How Sona uses blockchain technology in the music industry to bring transparency and efficiency to the ecosystem for musicians. Challenges for female producers in the music industry, gender bias, fundraising, and democratization in the music industry. Quotes: "With the internet, it kind of opens the floodgates for people to kind of just steal music, and that's really difficult for people who make music... I think technology and music are so intertwined now that it's kind of hard to say that they're two separate entities. Like, they're very linked." - TOKiMONSTA "I never wanted to be a DJ. You know, I wanted to make music. And now it's like I kind of love both and I feel that both are very different and dynamic skills that I've had to learn to kind of work on." - TOKiMONSTA "As far as making music and producing, that's something that came out of just having such a deeply rooted love for music. And then one day, I decided, I think I can do that, you know." – TOKiMONSTA "I feel like the more diversity we have, especially in music, the more interesting it gets because you have all these different perspectives and different ways of thinking.” - TOKiMONSTA https://tokimonsta.com https://sona.stream https://www.internationalmusicsummit.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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