In 2021, it was the year of the NFTs, and without a doubt, these have broken like a gigantic devastating tsunami within the world of visual art. Creators realized they could connect directly with their most avid fans instead of relying on intermediaries who extracted massive amounts of value from their hard work.
In its current evolution, NFTs stand for: A direct line between creator and fan, leading to a stronger relationship between value created and value captured.
But we have only seen NFTs explode in the art world. There are creators worldwide: writers, musicians, streamers, video creators, designers, artists, etc.
All of them can benefit from digital property and NFTs. We've seen some of these platforms take off, like Mirror Protocol for writers, but much of this potential remains untapped.
Imagine being able to bet on your favorite artist at the beginning of his career. With music NFTs, this future is not far away.
While we are exploring means of collecting music today, this cycle will inevitably lead to a full-blown DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) economy where artists put a percentage of all sales into a community-run treasury will be both beneficial for both the artists and their fans.
And if you haven't figured it out yet, community treasures often lead to tokens.
This post will highlight the potential of this technology in one of the most punished sectors of artists in recent times, musicians and music creators, and why NFT is the future of the music industry?
A glimpse of hope for the music industry
A new NFT market is emerging. One that has a higher chance of being adopted by the broader public. It is called the music NFTs. Music NFTs are audio files that can be collected. They allow fans to interact with their favorite musicians in ways never possible before the birth of blockchain, including collecting songs they like and participating in their favorite artists' musical adventures and even sharing the rewards of their effort.
Music collecting is not new, but it is now in the age of digital ownership.
Music NFTs offer a new way of curating your taste by exposing the underlying creative work and its originator, just like we do with vinyl, CDs, and playlists. Music collectibles are worth more than 5,000 million dollars in the traditional world. The sky is the limit in the digital world.
We'll look at the emerging trend of music NFTs in this post and see how this new model can help the future generation of independent artists.
Empowerment of artists
Blockchain technology can help empower artists more in their profession, especially semi-professional artists. While the issue of unequal distribution is unlikely to be resolved entirely, improving conditions for semi-professional artists can make a big difference and lead to a more diverse market. That's what Muzix NFT Marketplace was created for. To help Semi-professional artists looking for a stage and don't want to wait until they have been listened to thousands of times for a few euros. These semi-professional artists need a platform to get known. Spotify is huge, but musicians earn little from it.
NFTs and digital property
A digital certificate of authenticity is known as an NFT. Any digital content, such as a music track, can be assigned a set of digits and recorded on the blockchain, resulting in a cryptographic token verifying the asset's authenticity. For the time being, the Ethereum blockchain is home to most sites that allow users to create and sell NFTs. Ethereum, like bitcoin, is a cryptocurrency. Instead of having money, you may buy an NFT (usually with Ethereum) and digitally own a piece of music, for example.
Anything you place in an NFT can be assigned rights. When music is distributed through NFT, ownership will always be traced back to the original creator, ensuring that their copyright is protected. It also implies that this music is one-of-a-kind, making it likely rare and precious. In 2018, NFTs became famous within the artistic world since purchasing one is similar to purchasing a Dali original: while postcards can be made from it, there is only one authentic one. Artists can use NFTs to auction off various digital media to their fans in the music industry. It might be anything from a limited-edition release with a hidden verse to a signed CD, backstage access, beats, or samples — basically anything that adds value.
People can invest in music as they would in tangible art since NFTs are all about scarcity. Is that to say that my song will only be available to people who pay for it? No, it can (and should) be available on Spotify, Deezer, YouTube, and any other platform, but like any tangible commodity, your infinitely reproduced song only has one original.
A new monetization model in the music industry
NFTs in music are a new way for artists to make money. Music NFTs are, at their essence, digital treasures. They have no inherent property rights and are merely an asset that a collector can buy and sell. Although these NFTs can easily be paired with DAO techniques to fund campaigns and artist support, which can reward you with a portion of future revenues.
Independent and semi-professional artists are getting significant collections and financial support for their work using these tactics.
Music NFTs give artists an advantage in a world dominated by streaming and touring by building a community of superfans willing to gather rare digital renditions of the work.
Collectables offer the most straightforward monetization strategy given the lack of regulatory impediments encountered when artists own 100% of their rights.
Traditional streaming companies like Spotify, for example, pay roughly $3,700 per million streams. Music NFTs, on the other hand, sell for thousands of dollars, demonstrating that developing a community on the NFT marketplace is preferable to playing the numbers game on Spotify.
While the macro situation of cryptocurrencies may significantly impact music NFT sales, the benefits of a dedicated collector group of superfans apply regardless of market conditions. It is a direct monetization approach that takes advantage of an artist's 100 real followers.
Music NFTs allow you to optimize your earning potential with just a few loyal fans, so you don't have to be a pop sensation to make a livelihood. They serve as the foundation for creative DAOs and are the first step toward musical microeconomics.
Artist now have new revenue opportunities
Other systems, such as Mediachain, Musiclife, eMusic, and others, are focused on the same royalties issue and use comparable technology to provide independent musicians with a larger share of the pie they are essentially creating. On the other hand, Blockchain technology is proving to be a straightforward and effective way for independent musicians to deal with other areas of the industry that may be tough for newbies.
And Muzix NFT Marketplace platform created for musicians allows artists to split payments with co-creators easily. So if you are a co-producer, visual artist or influencer? Then you divide the profit (or royalties) based on percentages through the blockchain smart contract.
NFTs can also be used as speculative assets, allowing independent artists to profit from their work. For example, if a semi-professional artist is doing well in the industry, and you see the potential for him to be a megastar with NFTs, you can bet on him. When he becomes more successful, you earn more too.
For the artists, this allows the community they are in to invest in their future success, and as they grow in success, that NFT will become even more valuable. This also means that the fans will assist you in growing.
Conclusion
NFTs not only emerge as a means to distribute the value generated by music more equitably, including consumers with their new role as owners and giving artists a more prominent role in the distribution of profits. It also enables a new channel for emerging artists to release their creations as NFTs. Today's artists depend on record companies to distribute their content. But, with NFTs, any creator can sell their music in the form of a non-fungible token without going through the intermediary of record labels and large streaming platforms, such as Spotify.
As you can see, NFTs are starting a new revolution in the music business. As in all revolutions, there will be losers (in this case, the record companies and the big platforms in the sector), but creators and consumers will be able to benefit to a greater extent from a fairer and more remunerative system for creators and participants
