"Blockchain My Art" wins Music WorX prize for founders

The winning founders, Enrico Mina and Maxim Faget, won over an eight-member jury of experts with their blockchain app, which raises the transparency of production chains and distribution keys for cultural events  - for both organizers and audiences. Visitors use the mobile phone application to learn what happens to their money while organizers use the app to communicate with their team, handle ticketing and to keep track of all transactions. The French-German founders prevailed over competitors from Mannheim, Bochum and Kiel. 

Fledgling companies and the start-up scene need innovative approaches and "above all good framework conditions" to master the challenges facing the music industry, said Dr. Carsten Brosda, Senator for Culture and Media, adding: "Our Music WorX support programme, now in its tenth year, ensures that creative work can continue and that the potential of the local music industry is not lost even in these difficult times." Egbert Rühl, Managing Director of Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft, stressed the  "importance of addressing innovations that do not originate as traditional research and development schemes".     

The Bochum-based Muvid founders won the second prize of EUR 2,000 for their platform which links up the music industry with TikTok influencers. Music labels and artists can place their music in a digital catalogue on the Muvid platform. Influencers then select songs from it to use with their videos in return for payment. Other competitors in the Music WorX Accelerator 2020 included ​​​​​​onTrack and ClubFinder. The three-month accelerator had earlier subjected all the participating founders to an intense qualification course. They attended workshops, received networking offers, coaching and financial support to further develop their business ideas. However, the COVID-19 pandemic saw the accelerator held remotely rather than in Hamburg. Large parts of the course went online and were held as video seminars this year.

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