Inside PurpleThrone's ambitious plan to connect the world of music and crypto

Aziz M. Bey, the founder and president of PurpleThrone Corp., always said that the music you find on his platform was akin to catching “the girl next door with her clothes off.” 

PurpleThrone is more than just a platform for independent musicians.  According to Bey, “PurpleThrone is an Independent life style brand of which music is at its core.”

“Just like hosting a house party, you do what you want to do.” Bey says.  This is the first place where you prove yourself worthy of being an artist.  If you want Lucky Charms Beer, EDM music, model guests, Nietzche debates, Picasso discussions, sky diving afterwards, then you do you. It’s your vision.

The PurpleThrone ecosystem converts fans “tips” from USD to PurpleCoin, the platform’s own cryptocurrency.  Musicians are paid in PurpleCoin on the platform, which is analogous to owning company stock. This gives bands the highest pay wages on the internet. 

Bey believes peer-to-peer financial contributions to musicians is be considered, like health care or clean water, a basic human right. He sees this as the most critical social endeavor of our time. 

According to the World Bank’s Global Financial Inclusion database, nearly 2 billion people do not have access to a bank account.  The PurpleCoin empowers everyone to back the music they love without needing a bank account and for as little as .01 USD. Musicians can accrue sizable returns from just about any place on earth.

For Bey, PurpleThrone is more than just a business initiative or a philanthropic endeavor: He considers empowering musicians to be his life’s work, the legacy for which he hopes to one day be remembered. Bey is convinced the world needs PurpleThrone. “There are hundreds of undiscovered genres around the world,” he says; “In fact, there are tens of thousands of villagers who search for and support their own tribal stars.”

As daunting as the skeptics are, they aren’t Bey’s biggest challenge. It’s musicians who need to be convinced they need the PurpleCoin.  Bey travels around the world to promote the work.  He delivers his speeches in a small industrial towns like Bridgwater, three hours west of London.  In September, Bey travel to Johannesburg, South Africa, to meet Ryan Johnson, who used to set up the music for the British Royal Navy in far-flung places.  “For the PurpleCoin to make a difference, musicians need to want to earn it and adopt the system.” Bey says.

Figuring out how to get people to buy in is as varied as the internet itself. Such challenges could demoralize anyone. But Bey is taking a very long view. Just like the nascent fax machine, it took a formidable sales effort to convince people they needed it. PurpleThrone is too important not to exist.

So why, then, is Bey the one to build PurpleThrone? “I think it’s because I care. A lot of times, caring about something and believing in it trumps all,” he says. “I just couldn’t connect the dots in the beginning.”

One thing’s for sure, it will be interesting to see if PurpleThrone can pick up where SoundCloud left off.