Some people have the wrong conception that NFTs can only be centered around visual art and similar subjects, but non-fungible tokens can be anything that has been digitalized, including the multi-billion dollar music industry. Music NFTs are a relatively new concept and their marketplaces are still not fully developed. But this might change soon, and we might see our famous artists moving their work to the blockchain. This will give us new opportunities to interact with the music industry and our favorite artists.
NFTs are digitalized assets that are recorded on the blockchain. Music NFTs follow this concept and on the technical side, they don’t differ from any other NFT. These NFTs can be single songs or even whole albums released by an artist. There are also music NFTs that come with music videos attached to them. These NFTs can hold different utilities, they can be used as tickets for artists' upcoming shows, or they can give you some other benefit or reward.
These music NFTs can be released in different forms. There are artists who release their music NFTs as 1/1 which means that each piece of music they release will have one NFT associated with it and only one person can own it. Another approach artists take is releasing their NFTs as part of editions. These editions can be further categorized in two different ways. There are open releases where artists release an unlimited number of NFTs that can be minted by anyone. There are also limited editions where only a selected number of NFTs will be released. Each type of release will have a different utility and different advantages and disadvantages associated with it.
When someone owns a 1/1 music NFT, because of its exclusivity, these NFTs tend to be worth more, while edition releases are less valuable but hold bigger utilities and are a better option for artists who want to interact with the community.
Music NFTs can be beneficial for both musicians and fans. Musicians will be the ones benefiting the most from these NFTs as they will give them full control over their music and won’t fall victim to big music labels and streaming platforms.
If we compare the current music industry to the past one, we will see that there have been huge improvements made and artists make more money now than they did in the past. But if we look at the numbers more closely we can easily see that artists are still being taken advantage of and are paid a fraction of what streaming platforms and music labels make from people who listen to their music.
These music platforms are multi-billion dollar companies where artists earn around $100,000 or more in a year. If musicians take their music and release them in the form of NFTs they will be removing the need to use third-party services and almost all revenue streams will go to the artists themselves, which will earn them way more money than they earn from streaming platforms.
Music fans can also benefit from these NFTs. Whenever you are a fan of a musician and part of a community you always look for ways to interact with the artist. A lot of fans like to support their favorite artist and that's why they purchase their songs on different platforms. NFTs give fans another option to support their favorite artists, but here they can receive different benefits. Some artists offer discounts on future tickets, invites to meet and greets, and other benefits to those who own their NFTs.
When it comes to purchasing music NFTs, there are two types of marketplaces we can visit. We can purchase them on traditional NFT marketplaces, but there are also dedicated marketplaces for music NFTs only. Each marketplace will offer NFTs from different artists, but there can also be NFTs listed on different marketplaces by the same artist. Here we will list some of the most famous marketplaces where you can purchase music NFTs.
Whenever you want to purchase any type of NFT, including music NFTs, the first place to visit is the biggest NFT marketplace around, OpenSea. Being the world's largest NFT marketplace, here you will find some of the most popular music NFTs out there.
What makes OpenSea really attractive to artists is the huge audience they can reach and also the royalties function of OpenSea. Whenever a music NFT is being sold on the marketplace, artists receive royalties from each sale. The amount of royalty is decided by the artist themselves and can be as high as 10%. Also, OpenSea has a Lazy Minting function which lowers the cost of gas fees for mining NFTs. This makes the minting process way cheaper and more attractive.
Launched by a famous American DJ 3LAU, Royal is an NFT marketplace dedicated specifically to music. What makes this music NFT marketplace interesting is that you are investing in the song you purchase. Even their main slogan is “Invest In Music”. So whenever you purchase an NFT from this marketplace you are eligible to receive a portion of the royalties generated by that song from traditional streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music, and others.
Another benefit that this marketplace has is how easy it is to purchase NFTs. You can use traditional payment methods such as credit cards alongside cryptos.
"With Royal we specifically let fans participate in the streaming revenue rights for songs." - Justin Blau
Currently, you won’t see a huge selection of artists on the platform, as 3LAU and the team behind the project are carefully hand-picking which artists can mint their music on the marketplace. But this guarantees that the artists who have their NFT music on this platform will be good artists with huge potential.
If you are looking to acquire more exclusive music NFTs, Catalog is the marketplace to visit. This platform only allows single-release NFTs on their marketplace and the artist can’t release editions of NFTs, even limited ones.
This marketplace has an interesting and good selection of artists and prices are not as high, considering you are purchasing exclusive one-of-a-kind music NFTs. Another great function that this platform offers is a built-in music player. Anyone who owns a music NFT purchased on their website can listen to it directly from the platform.
Catalog takes care of artists' needs and supports them as much as possible. Whenever an artist sells an NFT on the marketplace they receive 100% of the selling price. Alongside that, they also receive further royalties from future sales of the NFT.
This music NFT marketplace is helping to facilitate a sort of collaboration between musicians and fans. This platform is designed more for upcoming artists to gather funds from people who believe in their success.
Whenever an artist releases a new song, they can release limited music editions which can have up to 10 NFTs tied together. Fans can then purchase these NFTs, and they receive different benefits from them. What makes this marketplace interesting is that if you purchased an NFT here, you can easily migrate it to a different NFT marketplace and sell it there.
"Sound [!sound!] is a suite of web3 tools that help artists experiment and monetize with their music in new ways" - David Greenstein
Artists have earned more than $3 million in total from fans purchasing their NFTs. They have an interesting design, and it should be easy to find interesting music here. They have an upcoming drops section, where they tell us exactly which songs will be releasing their NFTs and when exactly it will happen.
You might be wondering who owns these music NFTs. When it comes to ownership of the NFT, the person who has it in his or her wallet is the owner, and the proof of ownership is written on the blockchain, so no one can argue over the ownership of a specific NFT.
But this does not mean that we own the music itself. One thing we need to remember is that whenever you purchase an NFT, you don’t receive commercial rights on that song unless the artist made an NFT that will grant you access to these commercial rights. Because of this, don’t assume that just because you own an NFT of a song you can use it as you please. Also, there are music NFTs which are only part of the music, this adds owners of the remaining song parts to this mix, so it can get even more confusing.
Yes. Investing in music NFTs can be a really smart move. There are two ways we can think about it. If your favorite artist has an NFT available on sale, you can support him by purchasing it. In return, you can receive different rewards and benefits such as tickets to their shows, different discounts, and other rewards.
But most importantly, this is a space that is still in the early development stages and has huge room for growth. If we take a look at different successful blockchain ecosystems, everyone who got in early saw unreal profits. The music NFT space is likely to follow the same route as more and more artists are complaining that traditional streaming services are undercutting them every day and this new ecosystem will help them to remove the problems that traditional streaming services have.
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Yes, NFTs can be anything that is digitized. Because of this, making your music into tokenized assets is easy and can be done on most music NFT marketplaces. You can sell whole music pieces as one NFT, or even sell one piece of music as multiple NFTs each associated with a different part of the music.
If you want to create NFTs of your own music, you can use services of different NFT marketplaces which allow minting. Our suggestion is to visit OpenSea for minting your NFT as they have a Lazy Minting function that lowers the cost of minting.
Yes, whenever someone purchases music NFTs directly from an artist they receive a portion of the sale. In most cases, this is 100% of the selling price, but some marketplaces take a percentage of the sale as a service fee. Artists can also generate income from future sales of the NFT and usually, they are the ones who decide on the royalties they take from each sale.
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