Music via RSS
Artists, podcasters, and music lovers are all part of a new and open ecosystem where creators are paid directly by their fans.
Learn how open protocols like RSS and the Lightning Network are enabling a new era of music streaming, and how you can be a part of it!
Artists, podcasters, and music lovers are all part of a new and open ecosystem where creators are paid directly by their fans.
Learn how open protocols like RSS and the Lightning Network are enabling a new era of music streaming, and how you can be a part of it!
I am a ...
... and I want to earn directly from my fans!
... and I want to play music on my show while supporting the artists!
... and I want to discover and support independent artists!
Modern audio players support listener payments in Bitcoin via the Lightning Network because they are fast, reliable, and have low fees. Listeners can send one-time payments known as boosts, or they can stream small pieces of Bitcoin—satoshis—every minute they listen.
To receive payments in this way, you will need a digital wallet. If there are multiple artists, songwriters, or producers, earnings can be automatically split in preferred ratios into multiple wallets with no middlemen!
Fountain is a music and podcast player that allows listeners to support creators with Bitcoin. Every Fountain user gets a wallet, so you can use it to earn from your fans!
Download Fountain from the App Store or Google Play. In your profile, you can set your username—your Lightning address will be username@fountain.fm.
Alby is an app and a browser extension that provides Lightning wallets for digital payments on the Internet. You can create an Alby wallet for free and use it to earn from your fans!
You can obtain a wallet via one of these apps: Podverse, Podcast Guru, or TrueFans. Find your Lightning address here; it will be of the form username@getalby.com.
You can also set up a Bitcoin node, where you, not a third party, control the funds. It may, however, require dedicated hardware and/or technical knowledge.
Some of the options include Umbrel, Start9, and ZEUS. We recommend learning before you commit to a non-custodial solution; DarthCoin’s Bitcoin Guides and Bitcoin Sessions on YouTube are good starting points.
Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a standard, originally used in blogging and podcasting, that allows you to upload content in one place and have it distributed everywhere.
An RSS feed is a text file that contains information about your music (song titles, liner notes, links to the audio files, etc.) and digital wallets. This feed is ingested by RSS-based music players, allowing your fans to listen to your music and support you!
Hosting is the process of making your audio files and the RSS feed accessible to the apps via the Internet. You can use services that handle the hosting of the media files and the feed, you can self-host on your own website, or you can use a combination of both.
RSS Blue is a music-native hosting company that provides the infrastructure for your tracks and RSS feeds.
For $5, you can upload 10 new tracks each month either in a single or album format. You will also know when your tracks are played on music shows, how well your music is performing, and how much (and from whom) you are earning.
Our customers include solo artists (e.g., Allen C. Paul), bands (e.g., Herbivore), and artist incubators (e.g., Phantom Power Music, who have onboarded the likes of Abi Muir and The Trusted).
Podhome is a podcast and music hosting company focused on AI tools for creators.
Podhome allows hosting unlimited albums and tracks. It also provides automatic transcription of song lyrics and suggests liner notes.
Music Side Project is an RSS feed generator for the purpose of self-hosting your music.
If you have your own website, e.g., WordPress, Music Side Project can be used to configure song titles, album art, links to audio files, and digital wallets. You can then upload the feed to your website, allowing listeners to stream music directly from a domain you control.
Blubrry is an established podcast hosting company that also supports music.
Blubrry offers advanced download analytics and a number of hosting plans. You can even host the feed on your own WordPress website with their PowerPress plugin.
Phantom Power Music is a music incubator for professionally aspiring artists.
They assist in licensing and financial agreements, especially for artists that work with songwriters with publishing or label deals. Phantom Power Music also helps you set up your own digital wallets, host your music, and grow the fan base by connecting you with DJs who play your tracks.
Some of the artists that have worked with Phantom Power Music include Abi Muir, The Trusted, and ARREIS.
Thunder Road Media is a project focused on helping artists host their music in a decentralized way.
In addition to hosting, they provide a chat bot that notifies when your music is supported by listeners. Some of the artists that have worked with Thunder Road Media include 12 Rods, Rusty Gate, and Panzee.
This open ecosystem of RSS and Bitcoin is built on the philosophy of value-for-value—the idea that artists and listeners can freely exchange value. No paywalls, no exclusivity—fans give back the value they believe they received.
A big part of this is asking for value. It is not enough to just upload your music and hope for the best. You need to promote your music, try to have it featured on shows, educate your fans on how they can support you, and engage with those who do.
Modern RSS standards allow DJs to feature your music on their shows. Wallet-switching technology means that satoshis sent during the playing of your tracks are automatically split between you and the DJ!
These shows are how most listeners discover new music. Many DJs gladly accept music submissions, so do not hesitate and reach out to them! You can find some of the most influential music shows here, including Phantom Power Music Hour, UpBEATs, Sidestream Music Podcast, Homegrown Hits, and The Boostagram Ball.
At this point, you are probably familiar with RSS, Bitcoin, and value-for-value. But your fans might not be! Educating them on how they can participate in this new ecosystem is crucial:
- point them to this guide
- invite to check out currently trending tracks directly in their browser
- suggest a modern music player, where boosting is built-in: Fountain, Podverse, Podcast Guru, TrueFans, or LN Beats
Value-for-value is not just monetary support. Sure, fans may send satoshis, but they may also share your music, send you messages of support, or even invite you to collaborate on new tracks. Engaging with them is key to building a loyal fan base.
Boostagrams are messages that listeners attach to their boosts. Some tools that help to keep track of these messages include RSS Blue Fortuna, Alby SATurn, and Helipad.
Usually, the best place to respond to these messages is where fans sent them. Audio apps like Fountain and TrueFans include a lot of this social functionality.
Modern audio players support listener payments in Bitcoin via the Lightning Network because they are fast, reliable, and have low fees. Listeners can send one-time payments known as boosts, or they can stream small pieces of Bitcoin—satoshis—every minute they listen.
To receive payments in this way, you will need a digital wallet. If there are multiple hosts or producers, earnings can be automatically split in preferred ratios into multiple wallets with no middlemen! And, of course, you'll be able to share earnings with the artists, but more on that later!
Fountain is a music and podcast player that allows listeners to support creators with Bitcoin. Every Fountain user gets a wallet, so you can use it to earn from your fans!
Download Fountain from the App Store or Google Play. In your profile, you can set your username—your Lightning address will be username@fountain.fm.
Alby is an app and a browser extension that provides Lightning wallets for digital payments on the Internet. You can create an Alby wallet for free and use it to earn from your fans!
You can obtain a wallet via one of these apps: Podverse, Podcast Guru, or TrueFans. Find your Lightning address here; it will be of the form username@getalby.com.
You can also set up a Bitcoin node, where you, not a third party, control the funds. It may, however, require dedicated hardware and/or technical knowledge.
Some of the options include Umbrel, Start9, and ZEUS. We recommend learning before you commit to a non-custodial solution; DarthCoin’s Bitcoin Guides and Bitcoin Sessions on YouTube are good starting points.
Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a standard that allows you to upload content in one place and have it distributed everywhere.
An RSS feed is a text file that contains information about your show (episode titles, links to the audio files, song references, etc.) and digital wallets. This feed is ingested by RSS-based audio players, allowing your fans to listen to your shows and support you and the artists you feature!
Hosting is the process of making your audio files and the RSS feed accessible to the apps via the Internet. You can use services that handle the hosting of the audio files and the feed, you can self-host on your own website, or you can use a combination of both.
For a show that features music, you will need wallet switching—the ability to specify episode segments when listener payments should be shared with the artists whose music is being played.
RSS Blue is a Podcasting 2.0 hosting company that provides the infrastructure for your shows and RSS feeds with wallet switching.
For $6, you can upload 4 new episodes each month. Using an RSS music search engine called Cupid, you will be able to discover both overlooked and trending tracks. Using a payments' analytics engine Fortuna, you will know how much (and from whom) you are earning.
Some of the shows using our services include Phantom Power Music Hour, UpBEATs, and Sidestream Music Podcast.
Podhome is a podcast hosting company focused on AI tools for creators. It supports modern RSS features, including wallet switching.
Podhome allows hosting unlimited shows and episodes. It also provides automatic transcriptions and suggests episode titles and show notes.
Sovereign Feeds is an RSS feed generator for the purpose of self-hosting, while The Split Kit is a tool that creates wallet switching blocks that can be inserted into the feed.
If you have your own website, e.g., WordPress, Sovereign Feeds can be used to configure episode titles, episode art, links to audio files, and digital wallets. The Split Kit can be used to search for songs and extract wallet switching blocks to be used in the feed.
After combining everything, you can then upload the feed to your website, allowing listeners to stream episodes directly from a domain you control.
Blubrry is an established podcast hosting company that also supports wallet switching.
Blubrry offers advanced download analytics and a number of hosting plans. You can even host the feed on your own WordPress website with their PowerPress plugin.
What music tracks can you play on your show? You can choose from thousands that are distributed via RSS! But how does one find them?
RSS Blue curates lists of the top music tracks and the top music shows. Deck Darlings are the most widely played tracks on value-for-value shows, while Payday Picks are tracks with the most listener support. To see what tracks other DJs have discovered, check out Pathfinders.
We also have a music search engine called Cupid that finds tracks by artist, album, or music player URL. It additionally displays which shows have played the track, allowing you to discover both popular and overlooked music.
LN Beats is a music player that surfaces decentralized music distributed via RSS. “Top 100” tab shows tracks that are most supported by listeners. “Search” surfaces new tracks and allows to search for specific artists. “Music Shows” tab lists shows that play music tracks.
Fountain is a music and podcast player that allows listeners to interact with creators. “Search” tab has a section “Music Top 100” that lists tracks that are most supported by listeners. “Featured Music Podcasts” section lists popular shows that play music tracks—you can listen to the tracks featured on the shows by clicking on the “References” tab of the episode.
TrueFans is web-based music and podcast player that allows listeners to support creators. “Music” section links to new releases and lists shows that play music tracks. TrueFans has artist pages, so if you like a track, you can find more music by the same artist.
Playing freely distributed music on shows is still a very new concept—you are pioneers! At this stage, every RSS DJ knows every other RSS DJ, and they are creating online groups and communites to share best practices and new music discoveries. Reach out to them! Pathfinders is a list of DJs who consistently discover new quality music—it is a good place to start if you want to network!
Can't find music you like? You probably know an artist or two in real life whose music you enjoy! They would probably not refuse an additional revenue stream, so why not
- point them to this guide
- show what modern music players can do for them
- help set up their digital wallets
This open ecosystem of RSS and Bitcoin is built on the philosophy of value-for-value—the idea that artists, DJs, podcasters, and listeners can freely exchange value. No paywalls, no exclusivity—everyone gives back the value they believe they received.
A big part of this is asking for value. It is not enough to just find some songs, mix them into a show, upload it, and hope for the best. You need to promote your show, educate your fans on how they can support you, and engage with those who do.
At this point, you are probably familiar with RSS, Bitcoin, and value-for-value. But your fans might not be! You have the best platform—your show—to educate them on how they can participate in this new ecosystem:
- point them to this guide
- invite to check out currently trending tracks directly in their browser
- suggest a modern music player, where boosting is built-in: Fountain, Podverse, Podcast Guru, TrueFans, or LN Beats
Similarly, you have an opportunity to onboard new artists and make sure they
- host music somewhere where sats go directly to them
- use open music players that feature all RSS music
Value-for-value is not just monetary support. Sure, fans may send satoshis, but they may also share your music, send you messages, or even invite you to collaborate on new tracks. Engaging with them is key to building a loyal fan base.
Boostagrams are messages that listeners attach to their boosts. Some tools that help to keep track of these messages include RSS Blue Fortuna, Alby SATurn, and Helipad.
Usually, the best place to respond to these messages is where fans sent them. Music apps like Fountain and TrueFans include a lot of this social functionality.