UnitedMasters Partners With Coinbase To Pay Artists In Crypto

Music distributer UnitedMasters has partnered with crypto exchange Coinbase Global Inc COIN to offer musicians the option to be paid in cryptocurrency.

What Happened: In a Tuesday announcement, UnitedMasters said artists using their platform will give independent artists the ability to be paid in crypto through Coinbase’s new payroll product. If artists choose to receive their payout in cryptocurrencies, they can then utilize Coinbase’s financial resources to spend, earn, trade or borrow.

“We want to make it easy for every company to pay employees in crypto. This is the future of payroll,” said Coinbase’s Chief Product Officer Surojit Chatterjee.

Steve Stoute, the founder, and CEO of UnitedMasters, said enabling artists to earn in crypto was a “natural next step” for the company, using technology to ensure the economics of the music business favors the creators behind it.

“As the financial sector continues to evolve and innovate, we’re committed to putting our artists in the best position to benefit from these changes,” he said in a written statement.

Related: Coinbase Set To Take On OpenSea With NFT Platform: What Investors Need To Know

Why It's Important: Stoute also appeared on a segment of CNBC's "Squawk Box" to explain the workings of a crypto payment option for artists with Coinbase.

“We’re taking money that comes in through Apple and Spotify and converting it into crypto and paying out the artist,” said Stoute.

Currently, there are 1.4 million artists using UnitedMusic of which 59% are under the age of 25.

“Payment optionality has been a big thing in this creator economy. And now, they’re asking to get paid in crypto,” he explained.

The UnitedMasters CEO also stated that the crypto payment options wouldn’t just be limited to Bitcoin BTC/USD and Ethereum ETH/USD, but “thousands of options” in terms of cryptocurrencies on offer.

Price Action: Coinbase shares closed 2.49% lower on Tuesday at a price of $249.33. Meanwhile, the crypto market saw a 3.68% decline over 24 hours. The market-leading cryptocurrency Bitcoin lost 4.5% of its value over the same period and was trading at $54,855 at press time.

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