I’ll be the first to admit that I was suspicious of NeuCoin when it launched. Their goals were lofty and in the altcoin world, that often foreshadows vaporware. But late last month, they released a feature NeuCoin has been hyping for a while, and it doesn’t disappoint.
NeuCoin has been integrated into Jango, the popular music streaming app that competes with the likes of Pandora. Jango boasts over 7 million unique monthly users. Daniel Kaufmann, credited as the creator of NeuCoin was previously the CEO of Jango. That connection has apparently paid dividends for NeuCoin. With Jango integration, NeuCoin is given a mainstream usecase no other digital currency has.
Jango’s most unique feature, other than having fewer ads than other free internet radio streaming services, is the exposure it gives to new artists. Every few hours, rather than forcing the user to listen to an advertisement, Jango will play a track from a “featured new artist” the user then gets to upvote or downvote the artist which will determine how much exposure the artist receives. Now, users will have the option of tipping the artist some NeuCoins as well.
Jango is giving each of its users 25 NeuCoins to tip out to artists, once they do that they will be rewardrd 25 more NeuCoins to either give more to artists or move off of the Jango website and do whatever they would like with.
25 Neucoins are currently worth 0.000158 BTC according to CoinGeko or about $0.06.
The integration is not similar to ChangeTip or other popular bitcoin tipping services that are built on top of existing social media services. Rather, NeuCoin is integrated directly into, and is front and center of Jango’s website. Jango even sent an email to users announcing the move.
While the altcoin space seems to be solidifying, the ones that will survive are the ones that find a real usecase. NeuCoin’s integration into Jango is not something that the coin itself is uniquely positioned to handle. Rather, it seems to be the connections and marketing strategy of Kaufmann and the NeuCoin team, that has pulled off this coup.
What artists are expected to do with their newfound NeuCoin tips isn’t immediately clear. It is unknown at this time if NeuCoin or Jango is giving them a quick way to turn the tips into Fiat, or if the artists are expected to sell them for bitcoin and then into fiat. In any case, some artists have already expressed their appreciation.
Received a #Neucoin tip for my #music being played internationally. Random encouragement is a nice feeling. #indie
— Kyle Walz (@kylewalz) January 23, 2016
In addition to Jango, NeuCoin has also been integrated into a Facebook game called Solitaire Racer.