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Technology marks the beginning, and the end of different ages, and the music industry is no stranger to this situation. In a few years, the reign of cassettes abdicated at the hands of CDs, which now exist practically only in nostalgia. In this sense, with the irruption of NFTs technology, what changes do you foresee in the way music is created and sold?
When a revolution or a major change begins, it is hard to gauge the scope it will have. However, from the outset, the emergence of NFTs seems to imply a much bigger change than the simple transition from one medium to another, as was the case with cassettes to CDs.
This is because it is not just a change from one medium, as might be the move from cash to the use of a checkbook or credit card. Blockchain technology has an even bigger impact, because it makes it possible to secure ownership and exchange between people without the need for intermediaries.
This, in music, opens new doors and possibilities for big artists as well as for independent artists, for those who are just starting out, for fans and followers, for those who want to support or invest in a musical project.
Thus, the entire music culture can be traversed, with a potential empowerment of individuals and a possible transformation of the ways in which the music industry operates.
NFTs have already begun to be used by artists of varying caliber, from legendary bands to up-and-coming artists. And both of them are noticing the new possibilities that this technology opens up to generate new ways of monetizing their art.
In a recent article published on the SPOZZ blog, we have seen the case of Arye, a hip-hop musician and producer who has found several ways to sell his work, contact his followers and create a community.
With NFTs, artists can tokenize their music, snippets of lyrics, concert tickets or exclusive products, allowing artists and content creators to offer new experiences to their audiences. And, in turn, new forms of monetization.
In the traditional music industry, a big part of the profits go to record labels, agents, distributors & others.With Web2 streaming platforms, the artist gets an even smaller piece of the pie.
Meanwhile, with NFTs and the advent of Web3, the middlemens are reduced, and the fans or followers can even finance the artists and participate in a percentage of the revenues.
In this way, the independence of the artists is also enhanced, in the sense that they can release singles directly with the support and investment of the fans, being able to avoid the requirements that could be imposed, for example, by a record label.
The revolution has just begun. It is hard to know the scope it will have and even the new possibilities that these new technologies will bring in a few years.
Meanwhile, the emergence of Web3 platforms in the music sector allows artists to take advantage of the new and diverse tools to create, monetize and interact with their fans.
The fan-funding model can drive a sea change in the way music is created, funded and promoted. This has the potential to help artists gain more independence; or, perhaps, to rely directly on what fans crave rather than what labels interpret will sell the most.
In turn, depending on the type of license that music NFTs have, fans may gain an economic benefit from future royalties of a certain song.
NFTs are unique items; there can be no other like them. In this sense, it may be that a musical artist may release a unique and unrepeatable piece and offer it for sale.
But artists can also create hundreds or thousands of copies of the same song and release it to the market. In the latter case, clearly, these would not be NFTs in the strictest sense, although they would be collectible items registered on the Ethereum blockchain, Polygon or BNB Smart Chain, for example.
Sometimes the neologism MFT is used to refer to music NFTs. And it may be that using the term MFT is useful on many occasions, since, as previously indicated, not all music items are strictly NFTs.