Mediachain Labs

Mediachain Labs was a provider of blockchain data technology designed to connect applications to media and information about it. The company provided an online protocol for registering, identifying, and tracking creative works to connect those automatically to their creators and information. The company's platform also allowed creators, organizations, and developers to collaborate on metadata in an open, universal media library. This allowed participants to retain control over their data while allowing them to broaden their reach through the decentralized architecture.

The company specifically sourced a decentralized, blockchain solution to ensure the data was tamper-proof and enabled location-independent collaboration without a central point of control. Further, the cryptography in the blockchain allowed the data to stay connected to the identity of the author and offered a channel for attribution, analytics, and value to flow from. The company was also working on a cryptocurrency to reward creators and curators for their contribution to the media library.

In 2017, Spotify acquired Mediachain Labs for an undisclosed amount, with Mediachain Labs commenting that Spotify had been an active part of the community. As part of the acquisition, the Mediachain Labs team joined Spotify's office in New York to work on technology to connect artists and other rights holders with the tracks hosted on Spotify's service using the company's previously developed blockchain technology and attribution engine.

For Spotify, the acquisition solved a problem the company had previously experienced with paying out royalties for streaming to the correct parties. The company had previously claimed that it did not pay royalties to interested parties because the company lacked the authoritative data and database to know which claims from which parties were legitimate, and in other cases, lacked the data on how to locate certain parties. Mediachain Labs solutions offered Spotify a chance to develop the authoritative database in a decentralized and peer-to-peer network, making it more open to the community.

At the time of the acquisition, Mediachain Labs announced they would turn over the technology and its related source code and documentation to the open-source community.