Music has evolved drastically as part of the internet revolution. And a new age of consuming music through streaming has dominated the landscape for the last few years.
I used to collect music. It was part of how I spent my time after school. I went to the record store, listened through tons of albums and rarely left it without new music under my arms.
At home, I could not WAIT to put the vinyl or cd on, rock out in the middle of my room and read through all the lyrics.
Music has changed a lot since then. Record stores had to close down and the culture of music shifted.
People use Spotify now, put on a song and have it play in the background.
We don’t collect music anymore.
I miss having conversations with friends about new and exciting records coming out.
But maybe there’s a legitimate road back to us collecting again.
The internet (web1 and web2) has been about consuming (like streaming) or creating (like digitally releasing music or writing about it on a blog).
Web3 is about owning a piece of the internet via NFTs.
What is a Music NFT?
An NFT can represent ownership of a digital asset such as an audio file (mp3 or wav). Think of it like a digital collectible that you can purchase and trade.
Owning a Music NFT turns you into a collector and could uniquely connect you to an artist’s career.
The majority of Music NFTs in circulation today do not come with ownership rights including the eligibility to collect royalties or license it to others. Record labels own the masters in many instances.
This will change in the future. Artists will emerge to release music as NFTs and be able to split ownership rights with their fans enabling them to earn music royalty revenue.
Are NFTs just another hype that will fade?
Beyond the art spectrum NFT technology is legitimately becoming the choice for verifying assets, which cements the importance for music as a use case.
Facebook and Instagram use NFT Technology for their “Digital Collectibles” & Starbucks has just announced a loyalty program utilizing NFTs via the Polygon blockchain.
NFTs in the future will manage large parts of our everyday life without us having much knowledge of it.
Use cases include event ticketing, digital identity, tokenisation of real estate, medical records, preventing counterfeit products, supply chain management via digital twins, digital fashion in the Metaverse, Nebula genomics & much much more.
Why do Music NFTs matter?
Music has always been about making connections with fans.
If you purchase an NFT you redefine your relationship with that artist immediately and become part of their musical journey.
It’s a much more intimate bond compared to wearing a t-shirt, buying a physical album or going to a concert.
Cooper Turley from Coop records, who just launched a $10 million music fund to support artists, pointed out that fans love to collect. They love to collect drumsticks, tickets from historic shows, setlists and more. For him “Music NFTs are the most direct iteration of fandom”.
Artists can leverage this newly found connection through communities of fans.
This is very different to the crowdfunding idea. A traditional crowdfunding campaign is a limited engagement between artists and fans. After the campaign ends the connection dissolves.
Communities on the other hand are made to last and share a common goal, which is to advance the career of the artist.
And the more the career and the community develops over time the more valuable the NFTs also become in price.
The new and improved future for artists
What if you didn’t need millions of streams on Spotify but only a handful of dedicated fans that invest in an artists music career. Revenue per creator/ artist should certainly be more than it is now.
*Note: 0.1 Ethereum = $144 (16.09.2022)
1️⃣ Snoop Dogg – Bacc On Death Row – $44.3 million
2️⃣ 3LAU – Album – $11.7 million
3️⃣ Grimes – WarNymph Collection, Vol. 1 -$5.8 million
4️⃣ Steve Aoki – Dream Catcher – $4.25 million
5️⃣ The Wu-Tang Clan – Once Upon a Time in Shaolin – $4 million
6️⃣ The Weekend – NFT Collection – $2 million
7️⃣ Eminem – NFT Collection – $1.78 million
8️⃣ Kings of Leon – Album – $1.45 million
9️⃣ Don Diablo – One Hour DJ Set – 1.26 million
1️⃣0️⃣ Whitney Houston – Unreleased track – $999,999
The current music landscape often feels saturated. For artists it is becoming increasingly difficult to stand out from the crowd.
The current opportunity presenting to adopt Music NFTs is therefore unprecedented.
Artists who invest in their musical journey by creating communities through NFTs will be rewarded long-term.
How to get started:
This is the hardest part. What is the next logical step and how do I break into the scene?
You certainly can go experiment, throw an NFT on an existing marketplace & wait what happens.
However building a truly web3-minded community of fans that is eager to invest and follow an artist’s career does not come over night.
A successful music career in web3 requires going the extra mile.
Let’s talk – Click here
