How NFTs Could Change The Music Industry… Forever
Music is universal in its appeal, global in its reach. It’s deeply intertwined with culture: great songs and albums, hymns, road trip anthems, children’s lullabies. It’s community, tradition, innovation, and art.
But as modern listening habits have evolved, the artists who bring us such pleasure have been squeezed and boxed in, both financially and creatively. Distribution of revenue in the industry has become increasingly unfair. Put plainly: In Web 2, it’s a tough gig monetizing your sound.
So is there another way? Could Web 3 provide the lifeline the music industry so desperately needs? And what are the benefits of music NFTs?
Change is coming! And in the music industry, it couldn’t be more welcome. Today we’ll go behind the scenes with a classical musician-turned-NFT pioneer to find out more – but first, let’s cover the basics.
What are music NFTs?
To start from the beginning: an NFT, or non-fungible token, is essentially a digital receipt, used to verify ownership of both physical and non-physical objects.
It might have real-life utility – for example, the deed to a house (!) – or it might simply represent a piece of digital art. All NFTs are unique, and cannot be interchanged (that’s the whole non-fungible part).
Okay, so what about music NFTs? Well, just like any other NFT, a music NFT lives on the blockchain. It identifies the owner of a musical work. These tokens grant owners the right to music, videos, album artwork, and any other exclusive access to content that may be packaged in with the NFT.
We’re still in the early days of NFT music, but last year, the market size was valued at more than 135 million USD. It’s expected to expand to more than $600 million by 2027.
Do music NFTs transfer copyright?
So, does a music NFT transfer the copyright of that track? Sometimes – but not necessarily, or without conditions.
Music NFTs can be sold to any willing buyer. How that composition is subsequently used is at the discretion of the purchaser. However, specific terms can be written into the smart contract (the underlying code) of the NFT. In some cases, buying the NFT may allow you to use the track for commercial purposes, but there are likely to be restrictions around this.
Selling off the intellectual property of an NFT can be highly lucrative: probably the most famous NFT project of all time, Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), is well known for doing so. Those who have “aped in” have full commercial rights over their token, without being subject to a financial cap – normally, NFT licenses limit IP revenue to $100,000 a year.
Of course, even if you’re not directly purchasing the copyright of an audio file, there might be strategic reasons to put your money where your favorite songs are. NFT platform Royal, for instance, allows users to purchase shares of a song’s royalties.
What are the benefits of music NFTs?
NFTs remove the need for a middleman. The musician, band, or composer decides what type of content they want to mint as an NFT. Note that it doesn’t have to be a song! An NFT released by a musician could include (real or virtual) merchandise or gig tickets, music videos, or audio files. The artist can choose what type of distribution works best for them.
The bottom line? Artists can release what they want, when they want, and determine their own royalties. They get free creative control over their digital assets, and can connect directly with both established fan bases and new audiences, without an intermediary (a record label, for example) scooping up their profits. Essentially, NFTs give artists the tools to build an engaged community and fan base – even from scratch.
Meanwhile, the live music industry is undergoing its own transformation: aside from the booming potential of virtual concerts (CC: Ariana Grande, Travis Scott and Justin Bieber), one of the most obvious use cases for NFTs is that they also translate into VIP tickets for your favorite bands and artists.
Own an NFT passport in the Aokiverse and you can come to Steve Aoki’s exclusive LA show. Play the Wombats metaverse game and win VIP concert tickets. The industry is barely getting started, and music NFT holders are already being rewarded with all sorts of exclusive in-person events.
Behind the scenes: what it’s like to be an NFT musician
To find out what’s it’s like to be an NFT musician, Meta Hollywood spoke with Cristina Spinei, one of the pioneering classical artists in the NFT space, a composer and performer known best for her work with ballet.
Hey, Cristina! Thanks so much for giving us an insight into the mysterious world of classical music NFTs! Tell us what you do in the space.
So at the moment, as well as releasing my own music NFTs, I onboard classical artists for the platform Catalog. Right now, we’ve signed up violist Drew Alexander Forde and Gateway Chamber Orchestra.
I’m also working on a generative piece for piano and synth for Async Music Blueprints. And I have an ongoing musical puzzle NFT that hasn’t been solved yet: I’m planning to release a few more clues to mark the upcoming 1 year of its drop!
When you think of music NFTs, it’s not usually classical music that comes to mind!
Right! There aren’t many of us, probably about 20! But it’s a growing market.
How do you become an NFT music artist? Is it a complex process?
It’s not that different from uploading something to Spotify, or the mechanics aren’t that different, it’s just you sign in with your digital wallet.
Sites make it easy for artists to upload their work, depending on the platform. So, with Catalogue, where I have a lot of my audio NFTs, I get the album art together, have my description, just like I would for anything, and upload it to the site. It’s that simple!
Do you think Web 3 helps broaden people’s musical horizons?
Definitely! I think because classical music is so niche, it’s fun to see new people appreciate it, as it deserves to be appreciated!
And I have definitely found that releasing new things as NFTs means the sound finds a different audience – an audience which maybe doesn’t go straight for classical music to begin with. Because lots of platforms aren’t divided by genre, people are more open to listening to different types of artists.
What are your predictions for the future of music NFTs?
I think we’ll continue to see more people developing it and more people getting into it. I think it’ll become so commonplace in 10 years that we’re not even talking about NFTs, it’ll just be a medium. It will just be a thing that we relate with and interact with.
I would love to see it be that commonplace sooner, but I’m not sure. I think we have to wait a little bit. But I’m in it for the long haul. And, you know, if it takes 10 years, that’s fine. But I have a feeling it will be less!
Featured image by Drew Patrick Miller on Unsplash
