Imogen Heap Embarks On 40-City Tour To Promote A Blockchain-Run Music Ecosystem

Imogen Heap has been on the forefront of personalities promoting how blockchain can turn the music business into a transparent and fair ecosystem for everyone involved.  The singer is now embarking on her first world tour in eight years to introduce audiences to her ideas and, of course, play live.

– Imogen Heap
Music and tech are two of the singer’s greatest passions

The 40 dates will comprise of talks, workshops and exhibitions, which are going to demonstrate Heap’s vision of the music industry’s future: music makers connected through a verified and decentralized peer-to-peer ecosystem, promoting artist-led, fair and sustainable operating practices. 

This ecosystem is powered by blockchain technology, which, besides being decentralized and offering fool-proof ways of verifying transactions, allows music makers and industry partners to do business based on smart contracts.

These contracts automate processes such as  the correct allocation of royalties and other moneys to the respective recipients in near real time – without the need for intermediaries sitting on cash for no reasons other than administrative ones.

Heap’s project for bringing the benefits of blockchain together is called “Creative Passport.” It is supposed to empower music makers to be data organized and ‘open for business’ on the blockchain. The Creative Passport is unique to each person and contains personal information, as well as existing IDs, acknowledgements, works and business partners.

In combination with the smart contracts, it is to encourage meaningful creative and commercial partnerships. 

Part of Heap’s plan is to connect with other music makers on tour and get them on board to use the Creative Passport, thereby “bringing to life an entirely new artist-led marketplace for the music industry,” according to the announcement.

The tour kicks off at Music Tech Fest at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, Sept. 3. It will continue to visit a host of European concert halls and conference centres in Spain, Denmark, Norway, Portugal and Finland.

34 more dates are planned throughout 2019 across Europe, Asia, Australasia, Africa and North and South America. Events in each city will feature some or all of these elements: intimate live concerts performed both solo by Imogen Heap and with Guy Sigsworth, who hasn’t been touring with Heap since 2003, an interactive exhibit walking guests through the ‘Creative Passport’, music maker to connect with the local music and tech community, talks and panels discussions and more.

“Finally after years, all the threads of my life are coming together on this tour, as I get to share my passions and projects in music and tech all around the world,” said Heap. 

“I especially look forward to airing a positive outlook for music makers and the business that surrounds them – as for two decades in my own career, this wasn’t always the case. I truly believe a big change for good is upon us with the ‘Creative Passport’ and other technologies, as we transform the music industry into a fair, flourishing and vibrant place.”

Blockchain technology has made waves in the ticketing space. Smart contracts in particular allow promoters to set rules for the sale and resale of tickets that cannot be broken.

Tickets for Heap’s so-called Mycelia Tour – named after her pilot blockchain project Mycelia – are sold through traditional channels. The singer told Pollstar: “We definitely see huge potential in blockchain powered ticketing but, at this stage, we have focused our efforts on realising our vision of the ‘Creative Passport’ whilst simultaneously generating awareness and driving adoption.

“In time this will, at an individual level, make it seamless to empower any artist to pick and choose the services which suit their needs, thus creating an entirely new marketplace for music makers and the broader ecosystem. We look forward to being at a point where we can build on what we are doing with the ‘Creative Passport’ by expanding into ticketing using blockchain technology.”