Phoenix Global Media Group Launches New AI Audio Streaming Platform to 1.3 Million Daily Users Powered by Theta EdgeCloud

ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, November 27, 2024  In a landmark collaboration set to reshape the future of audio streaming, Phoenix Global Media Group has joined forces with Theta Labs to launch the world’s first blockchain and AI-driven audio streaming service. Built to deliver a seamless and highly personalized experience, the AIR-Theta partnership combines Theta’s Edgecloud infrastructure with AIR’s advanced AI technology to offer an immersive blend of audio and video content. This holiday season, the collaboration will also introduce exclusive NFT offerings for celebrity hosts, paving the way for a new era of user-driven entertainment.

AIR is currently web streaming at onairnow.ai, providing a dynamic and interactive listening experience for audiences worldwide. Building on this success, the upcoming launch of AIR’s mobile apps on both Apple and Android platforms will mark a strategic move that aligns with evolving consumer habits, positioning Theta and AIR at the forefront of the next wave of audio streaming innovation. By integrating Theta’s EdgeCloud technology, the AIR app will deliver decentralized, high-performance content delivery to over 1.3 million daily users. Enhanced by blockchain-backed infrastructure, AIR is set to establish itself as an interactive, AI-powered destination for listeners and viewers worldwide.

Through Theta’s Edgecloud technology, AIR has the foundation to go beyond traditional streaming and bring truly dynamic, customized content to users at scale,” said Larisa Miller, CEO of Phoenix Global Media Group.

 

“This partnership is about more than just technology—it’s about creating an experience that adapts in real time to users while safeguarding the rights and value of creators.”

AI Meets Audio Streaming: A New Frontier in Digital Streaming

The collaboration between Theta and AIR signals a major shift in digital media by merging Theta’s EdgeCloud capabilities with AIR’s AI-driven personalization. AIR’s intelligent content programming, in combination with Theta’s patented NFT DRM and AI-powered GPUs, enables secure content distribution that dynamically responds to user preferences. With access to multi-genre dynamic music streaming channels and regional channels such as Abu Dhabi AI, AI Dubai, and Lagos AI, users currently enjoy a localized, community-driven streaming experience. AIR will soon expand its offerings with a variety of talk, sports, and public interest channels, further enhancing its diverse and engaging platform.

This partnership perfectly aligns with Theta’s mission to drive the evolution of streaming,” said Mitch Liu, CEO of Theta Network.

 

“With AIR’s innovative AI-driven programming on Theta’s EdgeCloud decentralized infrastructure, we’re setting a new standard for immersive and secure content delivery. Together, we’re creating unique opportunities for audiences, creators, and advertisers in ways that were previously unimaginable.”

Empowering Creators and Fans Through Tokenization

As part of this collaboration, AIR will introduce NFT-based content, enabling creators to tokenize and monetize their work. This opens up new revenue streams and deepens fan engagement through tokenized rewards. Using ThetaDrop, AIR’s blockchain integration safeguards digital rights while enriching the user experience through gamified, reward-based interactions. For advertisers, Theta’s blockchain analytics offer valuable insights, allowing for more precise and effective campaign targeting.

Global and Local Reach with AI-Curated Content

Theta’s EdgeCloud empowers AIR to scale content globally while offering region-specific channels and personalized, AI-curated playlists. From music and sports to exclusive AI-hosted shows, the AIR-Theta collaboration will enable a responsive, AI-powered streaming model that will adapt to listeners’ needs in real time, delivering tailored experiences on a global scale.

Looking Ahead

The AIR-Theta partnership is set to make its first public debut at Thetacon this December, held at Resorts World Las Vegas. AIR will take the main stage to discuss how this pioneering collaboration redefines streaming through blockchain and AI, offering audiences and creators a glimpse into the future of digital media.

ABOUT AIR

AIR – The Future of Radio is a groundbreaking streaming platform developed by Phoenix Global Media Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of Phoenix Global Group Holdings. Harnessing the power of AI, blockchain-backed infrastructure, and cutting-edge technology, AIR offers a dynamic blend of curated content featuring multi-genre music and destination-focused channels such as Abu Dhabi AI, AI Dubai, and Lagos AI. With plans to introduce dynamic talk channels for sports, culture, business, and entertainment, AIR is redefining how audiences connect with localized, community-driven content. As a pioneer in the evolution of audio streaming, AIR is setting a new global standard for the future of radio.

ABOUT THETA LABS

Theta Labs pioneered Theta Network, the next-generation video, AI and entertainment blockchain, and ThetaDrop NFT marketplace in partnership with Katy Perry, Samsung, Sony, ABS-CBN, WPT, Jukin Media, and others aiming to disrupt the digital collectibles industry. Theta’s Web3 infrastructure enables media and entertainment companies to drive incremental revenues, user engagement, and new Web3 business models. Theta EdgeCloud Video is a turn-key decentralized video API for developers offering significantly lower video transcoding, storage, and content delivery costs. Backed by Samsung, Sony, Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments and Creative Artists Agency, Theta is among the top 10 DePIN blockchains by market capitalization on Coingecko and top AI tokens on Binance.com, Recently launched Theta EdgeCloud is the first hybrid cloud-edge computing AI platform with over 80 PetaFLOPS of on-demand distributed GPU compute power. Theta’s enterprise validator and governance council is composed of global market leaders including Google, Samsung, CAA and Binance.

Howdy. Ed here. In just the last few weeks, the crypto regulatory story has been turned on its head.

“Regulation by enforcement” is dead. And the industry’s wish list is very much alive.

Crypto, which raised almost $200 million to influence the 2024 US election, is poised to land its holy grail — a bespoke law that codifies cryptocurrencies as assets separate from stocks, bonds, and other securities.

Even better, the incoming Trump Administration appears content to let crypto be crypto.

Donald Trump and his sons, after all, aren’t just supporters, they’re also players.

Their newly minted crypto venture, World Liberty Financial, promises to lead a revolution “by dismantling the stranglehold of traditional financial institutions.”

In other words, let the disruption rip.

A question of clarity

A year ago, all the crypto industry wanted was clarity.

Rather than acquiesce to the industry’s desire for legislation that treated cryptocurrencies as a separate asset class, the US Securities and Exchange Commission insisted on applying laws passed during the 1930s to the fledgling marketplace.

That meant a lot of very messy, and costly, litigation.

Crypto leaders such as Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong cried foul and rang the alarm about US competitiveness.

Amid the tumult, it was the European Union that offered hope.

Here comes MiCA

With the 2023 passage of the landmark Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, or MiCA, the 27-nation bloc clarified the do’s and don’ts for an industry bristling at Gary Gensler’s crackdown.

Crypto giants such as Coinbase and Circle may not have jumped for joy as Brussels imposed fresh regulations in the world’s second biggest economic area.

But they did welcome an approach that eschewed Gensler’s taste for legal combat in favour of clearly drawn rules.

But now, with the advent of Trump’s second term and a Republican Congress, all bets are off.

It will be Washington that resets the regulatory agenda for an industry that has added $1.2 trillion in market value since election day on November 5.

If crypto champions such as Senator Cynthia Lummis, a Wyoming Republican, introduce legislation that memorialises the industry’s exceptionalism in law, MiCA is going to look downright thorny by comparison.

Detailed blueprints

This is because when it comes to regulating technology, the US tends to err on the side of letting businesses do what they want. If companies do run afoul of the law, well, that’s what the courts are for.

In contrast, the EU prefers a preemptive and prescriptive approach to regulation. This is why MiCA lays out detailed blueprints for everything from stablecoins to crypto exchanges to NFTs.

Now the US is about to pitch up a more freewheeling alternative regime. Some officials say it’s high time.

‘Brutish and short’

In a speech earlier this month, Hester Peirce, the crypto-supporting SEC commissioner, urged her fellow regulators to stop clutching their pearls at the mere mention of crypto.

“Crypto-asset skeptics and enthusiasts alike can understand that a regulatory environment that is characterised by instability, uncertainty, and fear inevitably renders entrepreneurial prospects nasty, brutish, and short,” Peirce said.

As a new era dawns, crypto entrepreneurs won’t have regulators to kick around anymore.

They’ll already have what they want.

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Code is not the same thing as a person or a company. Full stop.

For months, six plaintiffs have been arguing that point in connection with the US Treasury Department’s punishment of Tornado Cash.

Supported by Coinbase and other crypto stalwarts, they contended the Treasury Department erred by sanctioning the crypto mixer for executing transactions by North Korean-linked hackers and other national security threats and criminals.

Now a US court has agreed and delivered the crypto industry an eye-opening legal victory.

‘Immutable smart contracts’

In a 34-page opinion issued on Tuesday, an appeals court in Texas reversed a lower court ruling and said the smart contracts utilised by Tornado Cash to anonymise crypto transactions are not covered by existing law.

The court said the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, was wrong to sanction the venture in 2022 and ordered a lower court to grant the plaintiffs’ request for dismissal of the sanctions in part.

“We hold that Tornado Cash’s immutable smart contracts… are not the ‘property’ of a foreign national or entity,” the three-judge panel wrote. “OFAC overstepped its congressionally defined authority.”

In the last 24 hours, TORN, the token associated with Tornado Cash, soared 400%, according to CoinGecko.

Longstanding argument

Crypto privacy advocates said the decision affirmed their longstanding argument that automated smart contracts should be treated differently than developers or DAOs or any other entity managing an anonymising platform like Tornado Cash.

“Incredible win here,” Matt Corva, general counsel at ConsenSys, said on Tuesday.

‘Put another way, the government’s overreach will not stand.’

—  Paul Grewal, Coinbase

Paul Grewal, the chief legal officer at Coinbase, hailed the decision as a game changer for blockchain technology.

“These smart contracts must now be removed from the sanctions list and U.S. persons will once again be allowed to use this privacy-protecting protocol,” Grewal wrote on X.

“Put another way, the government’s overreach will not stand.”

Weapons of mass destruction

To be sure, the court recognised the importance of addressing online national security threats.

The judges said it was clear that a North Korean-linked hacker group had laundered $7 billion in illicit proceeds from crypto thefts to fund the development of its weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programmes.

But the panel found that the law invoked to sanction Tornado Cash — the 47-year-old International Emergency Economic Powers Act — was ill-suited to “target modern technologies like crypto-mixing software.”

If Congress wants to take action against blockchain-based platforms to protect national security it should pass another law, the court suggested.

On trial

The plaintiffs in this civil case made a similar argument to Alexey Pertsev, the Tornado Cash dev who was sentenced to a five-year prison term in May by a Dutch court following his conviction for helping launder $1.2 billion in illicit funds on the platform. Pertsev is appealing his conviction.

Pertsev’s former colleague, Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm, is scheduled to go on trial for similar charges in the US in April. He has pleaded not guilty.

Legal experts cautioned against reading too much into the US appellate ruling.

“While we should celebrate this, we should temper our celebration,” Reuben Yap, co-founder of privacy protocol Firo and former partner at Malaysian law firm Reddi & Co Advocates, told DL News.

This covers only whether smart contracts can be sanctioned and does not necessarily give protection to the developers of such protocols.”

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