The music industry is one that web3 could really disrupt, and this is already happening.

Its evolution from CDs to streaming platforms and social media has made it easier for artists to share their music, but it hasn’t removed all gatekeepers. Artists still need to finance their work, which explains why record labels are still in business. Streaming platforms like Spotify are regularly criticized for not paying artists enough, and social media alone may not be enough to keep fans engaged.

Web3 can provide solutions to these problems.

selling music

Like any digital asset, music can also be tokenized or, in other words, registered as NFTs.

Famous artists have been releasing NFT albums and singles for a while now. Usually aired as an addition to traditional channels, these NFTs come with collectible artwork and special perks, like front-row tickets to the artist’s shows.

Music NFTs are becoming an important additional source of monetization: in 2021, Kings of Leon‘s NFT album grossed about $2.5 million, DJ 3LAU‘s – $11.6 million, and DJ Steve Aoki famous said: “In the 10 years I’ve been making music, six records, and you culminate all those breakthroughs, what I did on a drop last year on NFTs, I made more money.”

NFT albums are getting more and more popular and record labels try not to miss them. This August, Warner Records UK partnered with music marketplace NFT Serenade to release a new music format they called Digital Pressings, an NFT that features full audio along with unique artwork and unlockable rewards. The first band to try this format was none other than Muse, selling 1,000 NFTs in just 25 minutes.

invest in music

NFTs are programmable and can be used to give their owner the right to collect a portion of their royalties. This quality is exploited by Royal, a marketplace that allows its users to buy and trade music NFTs and earn a share of the accompanying royalties along with the artists, as the music is streamed on platforms like Spotify or Apple Music.

Services like Royal could become key in funding independent artists, also helping them create a committed fan base, who are interested in seeing this artist succeed.

music streaming

Audiusanother web3 music platform, aspires to become a streaming service in its own right.

It promises a new kind of revenue sharing, where users pay artists directly when they stream their music, ensuring a level of revenue transparency that traditional services like Spotify cannot provide. This system, however, has yet to prove its worth: at the moment, the $AUDIO token is used solely as a stimulus and only the top 5 artists are paid each week.

The platform now has around 250,000 artists and seven million listeners.

Ticketing

Selling concert tickets as NFT not only streamlines the process, bypassing the middlemen, but also helps combat bad players in the secondary ticketing market. platforms like yellow heart You can write the rules for the sale of tickets in the smart contract of an associated NFT, specifying the price of a seat, a maximum reseller price…

Selling tickets as NFTs can also help distribute revenue better. Their smart contracts can be programmed to send an agreed percentage of the price to the artist, to the promoter, to the venue… and to do so not only for the initial ticket sale, but also for each consecutive resale.

Interact with fans

NFTs offer a new type of artist-fan relationship, one that can go beyond exclusive merchandise or meet-and-greets.

Steve Aoki has created Aok1verse, an entire virtual world controlled by NFT with numerous benefits, from live chats with the DJ to co-creating a song.

companies like pixelynx explore new ways to consume music and experiment with bringing gaming, augmented reality and elements of the metaverse into the music space. Founded by DJs deadmau5 and Richie Hawtin, Pixelynx was acquired yesterday by Animoca Brands, a web3 giant.

The musical potential of web3 is enormous, and new high-profile projects appear regularly. This spring, John Legend’s music NFT platform project raised $7.5 million. This week, Warner Music Group announced a partnership with Polygon and LGND, an e-commerce developer, to create a music and collectibles platform. Yesterday, the classic Windows Media Player, Winamp, added NFT support…

It seems that NFT music is here to stay.

Written by D.Center