Episode 634: Why Your Voice Memo Proves Nothing in a Copyright Dispute ft. Nadim Rahman 

Song copyright protection for musicians who record ideas with a voice memo at 3am proves nothing in a dispute. That original moment completely unverifiable.

On this week’s episode, I speak with Nadim Rahman about Songproof, a dual-blockchain platform that recognizes that musicians needed an irrefutable timestamp at the exact moment inspiration strikes, not after the fact.

For 99 cents per song, Songproof issues what Rahman calls a birth certificate for your music, anchored to the blockchain, so that if a collaborator or label ever questions who wrote what first, the proof already exists and cannot be altered.

Songproof actually uses two separate blockchains for distinct purposes: Bitcoin handles the timestamp, creating irrefutable proof of when a song was created, while Polygon handles split sheets through smart contracts.

You’ll hear more about how Songproof works in this weeks episode.

You can also hear it via Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Mixcloud, Spotify, Deezer, and TuneIn Radio.

Also, a video version of this podcast is now available on YouTube as well.

Enjoy the show!

Chapters:

00:00:00 – Coming up…

00:01:18 – What is SongProof and how did it start?

00:05:08 – Why blockchain is the key to timestamping your music

00:10:06 – How song versioning works and what it costs

00:13:00 – How legally valid is a blockchain timestamp in court?

00:16:20 – SongProof’s global reach and why it matters outside the US

00:19:10 – Can a blockchain certificate fight YouTube takedown requests?

00:21:02 – How SongProof is getting the word out

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